


•Discombobulate• |An Assassin's Creed Syndicate Fanfiction|

by BritishHotAssassin



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M, Friendship/Love, Historical References, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 07:34:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16132622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishHotAssassin/pseuds/BritishHotAssassin
Summary: Discombobulate:to throw into a state of confussion;to confuse someone or make someone feel uncomfortable.England,1868.The industrial revolution brings London a wave of drastic changes: the invention of new and ingenious machinery,the growth and increase of factories enrich the owners of the industries that bask in the money obtained from the workers fatigue.The great city,the center of the world,has an obscure soul where wealth struggles against poverty;where hope fights against despair;where injustice is only a background to a tremendous oppression that wanders the dark streets of London.People who get money and have a prosperous future before them.People who succumb and submit to the power and the will of the rich.But,in the darkness that haunts the great industrialized city,there is only one small light shining,the source of a new and sought hope.Three Assassins will fight against the vicious savagery of the Templars over London,intertwining their liberation missions with new feelings and emotions,with a new and pure love...with an old promise made years before it will return to light.The city will shine and live again.It's time for oppression to end.





	1. •I |Of hope and help|

_London, 1868_

Silence reigned supreme in the small shop, where the slightest sound was caused by the feather that slipped, quickly and precisely, over the piece of paper that was colored by the black ink of the tip of the feather.  
The atmosphere was of utter calmness and peace, while inside that little shop a young man was writing with a stern and worried expression on a slightly yellowed piece of paper.

Around him danced, gracefully and slowly and lazily, the dust that was illuminated by small beams of light that managed to go beyond the opaque windows of the shop.  
The weight of the hundreds of objects was dangerously cracking the shelves on which they were placed, frightening, every time, the poor boy who suddenly raised his head from the son of paper and then turn his gaze towards the noises: praying and hoping that those tall and large bookcases did not fall into pieces.

He looked away for a few seconds, then returned to look, with eyes veiled with concern and severity, what he had written on the sheet of paper.  
It had been more than an hour for Henry to find himself bent over the long wooden desk, the faint light of an oil lamp standing beside him.  
For once again he read what he had written on that piece of paper.

_'Brother George._  
_It is as I feared.London has fallen.Thrice I have written to you,begging your aid.Thrice you've respondend-with silence.And yet I write again,so desperate my need,so few my options.I need you.London needs you._  
_You would say it is too great of a task.Or that it is not yet time to strike.Patience,you would counset._  
_But whilst you wait,the Templars consolidate their power.They have chosen a Grand Master so ruthless,so thorough,one might think Reginald Birch,himself,had returned._  
_His name is Crawford Starrick.And he intends to rule the world.There is no aspect of society he does not control.No industry that escape his grim touch.By day it is corrupt merchants and venal politicians who hold court._  
_Come night,a vicious street gang known as the Blighters strikes terror in the hearts of all._  
_There is no business untainted by his poison.No person unexploited-be it by duplicity or force._  
_Our anemy has designs on the highest office of them all.And so as you look inward-and dare I say it-afraid-Crawford Starrick's ambition is fixed on the beyond:to kingdoms and continents as yet unconquered...though not for long..._  
_For he knows-as I have warned you-time and time again whosoever controls London,controls the world'_

He sighed for the umpteenth time: every time he reread those words, which he himself wrote that same day, the imaginary weight he had on his shoulders only increased more and more.  
The knighst Templar's powerful grip on London was growing with the passing of time, and every second lost was a long and distant step back in being able to steal the English city from the fierce hands of the Order.  
It could be said, clearly, that London was now under Templar control and that nothing could be done against their power ... but there was resistance, albeit very small, that acted silently and discreetly in the streets of the English capital.  
But this would not have been enough to stop the Grand Master of the Templars in his eager desire to have London, as well as the whole world, in the palm of his hand.

And that little resistance, was none other than Henry and another young Assassin: the two collaborated for many years, trying to change something, but in vain: all their movements were vain and useless and could not do much, if do not put an end to the life of some Blighters who threatened Londoners, sabotage some small factory and devise plans that would never have been implemented.

They just kept hidden in the shadows of their little den, watching London being dominated by the Templars; staying still  but with the desire to do something, to act.  
And, after years of being hidden in the shadows and acting stealthily, the time had come to overturn, to upset the facts.  
It was time for this heavy oppression to end.

This was the reason why Henry wrote that letter in which he asked for help, directing him to his brother Assassin, George Westhouse who was a close friend of Ethan ... Ethan Frye, the Master Assassin of Jayadeep, now known as The Phantom and Henry Green, the Assassin with whom he had lived all his adventures and who was almost a second father figure.  
He still remembered everything perfectly: his undercover work as a worker in the tunnel for the train, his old tunnel with all the people who lived there, Meggie, the gravestone of the cemetery that was moved in case of alarm;and how to forget ...

His confused and disordered memories of distant times were interrupted by the door of the shop which, opening with fury thus creating a tremendous din, revealed the figure of a young woman with white robes.  
Henry slowly raised his head and when he made sure that his friend was on the threshold of the door, he went back to re-reading the letter, not bothering to greet and welcome her.  
"Oh my God, I had them on my heels!" She panted, bending over backwards and resting her hands on her knees,to catch her breath and calm the accelerated beat of her heart.

But she received no answer from the Assassin who, holding his forehead with his left hand, still had his head down on the paper he had been facing for an hour.  
The young woman straightened up and, with a swift gesture of her hand, took off her white hood which she had cautiously lowered over her head, thus letting her long, wavy and raven hair fall down over her shoulders;she walked with slow steps and plushed toward the desk and, gently leaning her elbows on the wooden surface, leaned her chin on her palms, thus beginning to contemplate her friend ... who did not deign to look.

"Good afternoon to you too, Jay.Oh, how did you say?You're so curious to know how my mission went?Sure, I'll tell you everything in every detail!" The young woman suddenly exclaimed in a bubbly voice, interrupting the quietness that it had formed in the shop.  
Henry merely raised his head and gave her an almost amused look: in her big green eyes he saw the mockery and sarcasm sparkle.  
"Hey, little Indian shopkeeper, what's that long and stern face?" The girl asked purely worried, temporarily putting aside the irony and looking carefully at the piece of paper on which there was a neat and delicate writing.

Again, she obtained silence as an answer and in which Tessa took time to throw a fugitive glance at the sentences of ink: a quick and unique fugitive glance that, by reading only one sentence, managed to understand everything.  
In a blink of an eye, she jumped up from the desk and backed away a little, looking with slightly wide-eyed eyes and an expression almost amazed Green.  
"What?" He finally spoke, frowning, confused by the horrified expression of her.  
"No, Jay, you will not be doing it again ..." the young woman murmured in a low, worried tone, pointing to the letter with a wave of her hand.  
"Doing wha ..." but Henry stopped immediately, understanding with a little delay what his friend meant.

He rested on her a bored look, and to say the least tired and worn out, as if only talking cost him all his energy.  
"Tessa, be reasonable, I have to do it!" The Assassin exclaimed in a monotonous voice, slowly rising from the wooden stool on which he was sitting and then approaching his friend.  
"You wrote letters to Westhouse twice, getting nothing, silence, as an answer. And you know it all too well ... you know what that means? It means there's nothing left to do, that London is now completely under the control of the Templars and that there is no hope that anyone will help us! "she suddenly exclaimed in a load of anger and nervousness, leaving speechless Henry who frowned at her, looked at her in amazement: he had rarely seen Tessa angry and losing the patience.  
But instinct, she was right ... how could he blame her?

"Hope is always there and always will be, if there will be people fighting" the young Assassin uttered, interrupting the chilling silence that had formed between them, supporting a friendly hand on the shoulder of Tessa,who smiled slightly.  
"We are alone, Jayadeep, in two ... we can not do anything against a host of enemies" the girl answered, her voice strangely low and not authoritative and decisive as always, putting her green gaze on her friend .  
"You're wrong, we're not all alone," Henry replied with a sudden vitality, giving a few pats on Tessa's shoulder, who, looking confusedly at her friend, came back behind the desk and immediately followed him.

"I knew a great Assassin named Ethan ... Ethan Frye. Do you know him?" He began, hurling a small paper bag from inside a drawer, on which he began to write quickly.  
But Tessa did not pay attention to the actions he did , because it was too concentrated and lost with a glance at nothing,while her mind traveled between memories ... Frye ...  
"Y-yes, i-it seems to me you've me-mentioned him a-a couple o-of times ..." she stammered in a trembling voice, lowering her gaze to show the Assassin her expression of total fear .  
"I know he has two sons: Jacob and Evie, they are twins" Tessa's heart, hearing those two names so familiar to her, lost a few beats for seconds that seemed eternally endless for her.  
Her face blanched, her lips suddenly dried, her heart began to beat very fast as if it wanted to get out of her chest and her head started to hurt.

"Naturally Assassins, already trained by a- Tessa, are you feeling well?" Henry asked with a genuine concern, leaving his sentence unblocked to quickly reach his friend, and raise her face with one hand, and then see the girl's face. totally white and almost ... terribly scared.  
"Tessa, are you sure you're fine?Looks like you just saw a ghost," he muttered confusedly, leading the young woman behind the desk and making her sit on the stool.  
She, meanwhile, had a look lost in nothingness, and the Assassin could see a dark veil before her eyes.

"Well, I really saw a ghost ... I've got it right in front of me," the girl murmured in a low, hoarse voice, slowly raising the corners of her mouth in a mocking smile, raising a gaze full of irony on Henry,but at the same time overflowing with what was fear ... a tremendous, profound fear.  
Henry laughed amused at the joke of his friend and, coming back to grips with the paper bag, took the feather again, delicately sharpened the tip in the ink bottle that was next to it and began to write again.

"As I was saying ... there are these two young Assassins who could help us defeat once and for all the Templars and put an end to their rule over London," the Assassin pronounced with an ever-higher voice and with the hope that he began to to be born, slowly, within oneself.  
But if inside the soul of Jayadeep shines a new light of hope, old memories of so many years ago resurfaced inside Tessa's soul ... when she was only a little girl, when, on an April day swallows flew high in the sky, she made a promise ... a promise made looking deeply into the eyes and with a spark of confidence that shone within them ... a promise that, with all her regret and shame, did not hold.

"I just hope that George answers me ... and that soon London is free from the Order's grip," Henry murmured inattentive, placing the feather delicately on the wooden surface, being careful not to stain the desk.  
Meanwhile, while Henry was rereading for the last time the contents of the letter he had to send to Westhouse, Tessa was always feeling more and more ill, more nervous and more and more anxious: she knew perfectly well that the twins would not have hands in hand, while London succumbed under the control of the Templars, which strength did nothing but grow more with the passage of time.  
She knew all too well that the two Assassins, would not allow it-especially one in particular.

She was frightened, terrified at the idea of being in front of the Frye twin;she was terrified to death by the feeling she would feel when the harsh reality would appear before her, bringing back old memories and that important unfulfilled promise she had always desperately trying to hide in the remotest corner of her heart, her mind, her memories.

And, still sitting on the wooden stool behind the desk next to Henry, in her mind resounded phrases that she never could ever forget.

_"Well, I promise. And you?What do you promise me,Tes?"_  
_"I promise I'll come back to you, Jacky"_  
_"Cross your heart, then"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooo everyonee !!  
> Here I am in a new book, this time, a real FanFiction on Assassin's Creed ... Syndicate, to be precise! And on Jacob, of course! *^^*  
> I know that this first chapter (a subspecies of prologue), has not revealed so much of the story and the life of the protagonist ... but, in the next chapters, you will discover much more !!  
> That said, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Ciaa ;3


	2. •II |Of meetings and lies|

_London, 1868_

_Tick._  
_'Where will Jay go?'_

_Tack._  
_'It's long gone ...'_

_Tick._  
_'Maybe he'll be in trouble with those bastards of Blighters'_

_Tack._  
_'Mh, no, it's not from him'_

_Tick._  
_'And if he had any ...'_

"Oh, what is it?I had never noticed it, "the young woman suddenly exclaimed, interrupting her numerous, confused and worried thoughts for her friend, rising quickly from the stool she was sitting on. What she stopped her thoughts, it was nothing more than a big album that, leaning on one of the shelves of the many pieces of furniture, immediately attracted Tessa's attention;walking quickly and stealthily towards the shelf, she stood up on her toes to reach the one that looked like a book. Once caught,she contemplated it for a few minutes, punctuated by the ticking of the clock hands that hung on the wall.

She thought it was one of Henry's books, where he listed the expenses of the shop, what he sold and what he owned;but she was amazed when, opening the diary,she saw that some plants and some flowers were attached to it. And the corners of her mouth rose slowly in a sweet and almost invisible smile, when she remembered that time when Jayadeep told her that the herbarium was a donation of his mother.

She began to leaf through it carefully, reading with quick and fugitive glances those few sentences that were written on the slightly yellow pages of the herbarium ...

_Tack._

Tessa lifted her head in the direction of the clock, examining the position of the hands and then sighed wearily when she noticed the time: it was more than an hour that Henry was missing from the shop and she was starting to be impatient but, above all, to worry.She thought there was no reason ti be worried, since the Assassin was not looking for trouble ... but she also thought that if he told her where he was going instead of going out of the store quickly without giving her any explanation, now she would not have to stay alone in the store waiting for hus return.

With a quick wave of her hand,she closed the herbarium and then walked back to the desk and, before settling back in her chair,she put the diary in one of the drawers under the wooden table.  
Sinking into the chair and literally collapsing on the desk and resting her head on the wooden surface,she listened to the sound of the clock hands, while her gaze did not move from the door of the shop.  
And one question, that since Henry had left his shop in a quick and resolute way, turned in her mind, reappeared in Tessa's head: _'Why did not Jayadeep take her with him?'_

And her lips rippled in a nonchalant and almost weary grimace, when she heard the door of the shop open;not even lifting her head from the desk,she idly raised her arm and gesticulating with a slow gesture of her hand, pointed to the exit.  
"For the moment we are closed, please, you can come back later," she muttered in a monotonous, cantilevering, almost nagging voice, repeating like a parrot those words she had memorized every time Henry told to people entering the store during closure.  
"You were able to say it, finally" a male voice uttered to her, far too familiar, that did not scare her at all from his sudden appearance in the shop.

The corners of Tessa's mouth rose quickly, in a slight, purely amused smile when she heard the words of her friend. She felt Henry's quick, hurried footsteps move closer to her, until he too was behind the desk; turning her head to one side she managed to see the Assassin who, bending and quickly opening drawers, began to pull out some sheets and then put them neatly on the wooden surface.  
The young woman frowned in a confused expression when she recognized the people on those pieces of paper, and quickly raised her head from the table and then leaned a questioning look on Jayadeep.

She was not able to formulate her question, which Henry preceded her, leaving her mouth half open:  
"I see you've been busy during my absence," Henry said, nodding his head, pointing to the whole shop around him ... but the girl was wrong, or in the tone of his voice she could recognize the one that was a clear irony?  
"Oh yes, have you seen? The shop shines like it has never shone!" Exclaimed falsely astonished Tessa, returning with a straight posture on the chair, as she suddenly opened her arms in a theatrical gesture and pointing to the slightly disordered shelves.

"But now it's my turn to talk sarcastically, Jay" the girl replied proudly and loudly, drawing closer to the Assassin.  
"Why did you leave me alone, for more than an hour, in the shop?" She asked in a purely confused and curious tone, subjecting Henry under her gaze.  
"I had to do some business around town" Green replied firmly, still looking at the papers he had placed neatly on the table in front of him.

"And why did not you take me with you, then? You can't imagine how bored I was here" the Assassin snorted slightly annoyed and offended, sinking back into her chair, but not taking her eyes off Jayadeep; who hesitated sometimes, he spoke:  
"The shop could not remain unattended, you know," he reminded her in a monotonous voice, glancing quickly at the front door.  
Tessa sighed in resignation, and, raising both her legs and resting her toes on the edge of the desk, began to rock herself with the chair, thus obtaining many glares laden with reproach and disagreement by her friend.  
"By continuing this way you will fall," the Assassin warned her in a reproving voice, but which contained the obvious concern he had for her.  
"Nha, for all the times I did it, why should I fall right now?" Tessa replied in a pedantic voice, twisting her mouth slightly in a nonchalant grimace, crossing her arms and carrying them to her chest, looking down at her lap.

A few minutes passed that passed in complete silence, interrupted only by the muffled sounds that came from the crowded streets of London.  
And the girl raised her arm once more, when she heard a couple of steps walk into the shop and when a figure blocked the warm ray of sunlight,that filtered through the windows and gently caressed her face.  
"For the moment we are clo ... no, a moment" Tessa stopped what was the usual rigmarole, then to raise up on Henry her confused look, while he was still busy reading those papers.  
"Are we closed?" The girl asked quietly, with an amused smile on her lips, patiently keeping a reply from him that, as soon as he noticed someone else in the shop,he quickly raised his head;and a light and almost invisible smile spread across Henry's face as he looked up and saw the figure a few feet away from them.

"Did you give them the slip?" Henry asked suddenly, looking in front of him, while the girl frowned in an expression of sheer confusion when he heard his sentence.  
"What are you talking about ..." Tessa was not able to finish her sentence, which was quickly interrupted by a deep and hoarse voice that made her heart beat.  
"We give them more than that"She raised her head quickly to the sound of that deep, mocking, ironic and beautiful voice that resounded within the walls of the small shop; and she opened her eyes and fell almost from the chair, making a damn poor Henry, when she found herself in front of a handsome young man: with beard, massive body and quite muscular, dressed occasionally and street, with those brown eyes in which she could see the malice and pride dancing together, Tessa found something familiar in that stranger ... _very familiar_.

It seemed to her as if she had already seen him somewhere else;as if she had already seen that deep gaze which, at that moment, was scrutinizing her carefully and intensely. It was as if she felt a kind of bond binding her, like a very thin thread , invisible and transparent, to that young man.  
And that strong feeling of bonding that she felt in her heart, in her soul, did nothing but grow more when, in the shop, not even a young woman entered;whose ice-colored eyes immediately landed on her still figure on the chair held in balance thanks to her legs which, again, were on the edge of the table.

Among them fell a deadly silence, in which the two newcomers carefully examined the young girl who, not even breaking a movement and remaining in her position, was actually literally dying inside: that feeling, that strange emotion that had already she felt, was slowly consuming her from inside.  
She felt a tremendous awe under those two penetrating and deep looks, and Henry, sensing something strange, decided to break the ice that had formed between the three.  
"I've missed telling you that I'm not and I don't work alone, here in London," Henry began, with a slightly proud voice, an invisible smile on his lips.  
"Evie and Jacob Frye, let me introduce you to my faithful companion, as well as a member of the Assassin Brotherhood, Tessa Knight" the Assassin pronounced and, gently resting a hand on the girl's shoulder,  
looked down with a gentle smile only to meet the totally amazed, astonished and tremendously afraid expression of his friend.

He noticed a detail that made him very surprised: her eyes suddenly became strangely dark, as if they were placed in front of them a thick and glassy veil that did not allow the light that her eyes possessed to shine as always.

And at that moment, realizing that _the_ moment, that moment she had feared so much, had come to understand that her life would never be the same; she understood that her old, best childhood friends were in flesh and bones, real, in front of her when her heart stopped momentarily beating;she realized that Jacob was only a few feet away from her when she could recognize Ethan's features in his face, and his character in those brownish eyes;she realized that Evie was there in front of her when she saw that she was looking at her with a face torn between amazement and evident sadness.  
At that moment, when she heard their names and their surname being pronounced by the Indian assassin,she understood that everything would never be the same.

Henry frowned confusedly and, raising his head in the direction of the Frye twins, was even more astonished and confused at the same time to see that, even their expressions, were totally identical to that of Tessa.  
"May I know what's going on?" He asked in a confused tone, passing his gaze from the twins to the girl, who seemed about to die, even though her skin had turned pale like that of a corpse.  
"T-Tessa Knight?" Evie asked in a trembling voice, not moving her gaze from Tessa's motionless figure, as if what was in front of her was just a bad game that was playing her mind.  
_"Tessa ..."_ Jacob whispered in a whisper, reducing his eyes to two small slits as he looked intensely at the girl in front of him. And, what literally made her heart break, was the tone of voice that used the male twin: a confused mix of anger, sadness, disappointment, bitter irony and what must have been disgust.  
"Henry ..." the girl murmured, not turning her glassy stare away from the twins, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat.  
"Could you please repeat their surname, please?" The girl asked in a whisper, her tone trembling and incredibly low.

_"Frye"_ Henry repeated confusedly, looking at her in the same way, and then everything happens quickly: Tessa lost the support of the tip of her foot on the edge of the desk and, losing the balance that she had acquired with the chair, fell quickly and suddenly backwards,coming violently in contact with the floor ... and in the very short moment when she lost her balance,she swore to distinguish what was supposed to be an amused sneer.  
Henry leaned down immediately, seeing if her friend was well and worrying about looking at her face again.  
"Tessa, are you alright?" the Assassin asked and, raising the girl after he had the confirmation that she was fine, gave the two newcomers an apologetic glance. The girl raised her eyes from the ground to Evie's face,that her eyes are still slightly barred, looked at her in a mixture of amazement, sadness and regret.

"The same Tessa I knew when I was a child?" The female twin asked in an insecure voice, and made to immediately turn the desk and hold her old friend in a strong and warm embrace, but something held her back: something that was born inside when she realized that, for all those years,she had not made herself heard ... not a letter, not a visit ... nothing. Only silence.  
"Of course she's her, Evie" Jacob burst out, and the girl could not help but be amazed at how her old friend had not changed in character: always the malice, mockery and sarcasm in the voice, always the same charisma and pride that glistened intensely in his eyes.  
"Don't you recognize that sly look?And those eyes?Eh yes, she's the Tessa we knew," Jacob agreed mellifluously, sighing dramatically, while a mocking smile spread across his lips

"And she's also the same girl who has disappeared, leaving no news and not living for...how many years? Oh, sure, almost until now," he continued, feigning a sad tone, then distorting his mouth in a mocking bitter grimace as he continued to look at the girl with an indifferent and almost contemptuous look ... that made Tessa's heart break even more.  
"Maybe I don't know a concept ... do you already know each other?" Henry suddenly asked, turning all the heads in his direction, but his eyes looked for his friend's, with that veil in front of her eyes again,she looked at him as if she were looking for help.  
But none of the three answered his question, so that the Assassin had to proceed again:

"I knew Tessa had heard about your father, but I did not know you knew each other in person," he continued in a surprised tone, trying to lighten the obviously heavy atmosphere that had formed in the shop.  
"Ha! He was not aware of it,hear him!" Jacob chuckled with a bitter laugh, almost making fun of the Phantom's words.  
"Who knows what else you don't know about her.Know this, Green, she's very good at lying," the young Frye informed him with a calm, mocking tone, turning his gaze to Henry.  
"Jacob ..." his sister murmured in a low, calm tone, but that was evidently a rebuke for saying that.  
"Oh no, sister, our new ally must know who is really what he considers _'faithful companion'_ " her brother replied with an authoritative and decisive tone, as he leaned more along the desk to look good in the face Tessa

"You must know, Green, that Tessa knew perfectly our father Ethan ...she even considered him as a father figure!" Jacob began in a pedantic tone, giving an obvious look to the girl in front of him.  
"You must know that she is from Crawley, you must know that my sister and I have known her since we were still children," he continued, and his voice grew louder and rage, the fury that burned inside him could be glimpsed intensely inside his eyes. Meanwhile, Jayadeep looked with a completely confused and astonished look at his friend who, standing and walking a few steps from his side, listened attentively to Frye's words.  
"And, lastly, I advise you not to trust her anymore, because she's a liar, cowardly and who can't keep her word!" Finally exclaimed the young Assassin, his rough and deep voice that echoed in almost echoes infinite in the store.

And Tessa's heart lost a few beats for seconds that seemed infinitely long, as soon as she heard the last words that came out, quickly and with a wave of anger, from his mouth. What could she expect?That Evie clutched her in one of her beautiful hugs, like when they were children?That Jacob welcomed her warmly and with open arms as if nothing had happened?That he was joking with her as they did many years ago?That everything would have been as before, that the Frye twins behaved as if she had not disappeared and as if she had not made herself heard for long years?  
But above all, that Jacob had forgotten about the promise she had not kept?  
If she believed this,she was really a deluded.

Tessa knew very well and was aware that, the moment she realized that her two friends were in front of her, she no longer had a shred of hope within her. She was aware that she now had to face the consequences of her actions. She was aware that at that moment, the real, raw, harsh and brutal reality had stood before her, slapping her strongly.  
But Evie's high voice made her bring her feet back to the ground, interrupting her confused and numerous thoughts.

"That's enough! Let's get back to this when the time comes ... who are all these people?" Evie promptly interrupted them with an authoritative and decisive tone, then asked the Phantom who the people in front of her were, but she gave at her old friend a look full of sadness; and what made Tessa feel bad was just seeing something shining in her blue eyes: disappointment.  
Jacob, meanwhile, backed a few steps when he heard his sister's reproach, and sighed heavily, as if everything he said to Tessa had a tremendously heavy weight ... and, in fact,its had it. It was not easy, not at all easy , say those words so overflowing with hatred, anger and disappointment. But he had to do it, felt the need to tell her how much she had made him feel bad, how much she had made him suffer for not having kept her promise.

He was totally and confusedly shocked to find his old childhood friend in front of him, now that she had become a beautiful young woman.He had conflicting emotions inside him, every time je met her gaze with his: anger at what the she had done;sadness for all the time that she did not go in his company; but, at the same time, a strange feeling of joy suddenly pervaded his heart when he managed to recognize that, the girl with the Assassin robes he had before him, was Tessa.  
But now it was not time to bask in the past ... but Jacob was sure of one thing: there would be another moment when that speech would reappear.

And Henry, though with his mind was still thinking about all the information Jacob gave him a little earlier regarding Tessa, took a breath and, with a slightly heavy heart, began to explain:  
"Over the year I have enstabilished a number of connections across the city"  
"Splendid! We'll head focused aid ..." exclaimed Evie, really surprised, the hope that glistened in her eyes while her sentence was interrupted abruptly by the voice of Jacob:  
"Focused aid? Psh ... we take over Starrick's gangs, we cripple his control" he proclaimed in a very authoritative and decisive tone, and the firmness that was in his voice filled the air of the shop.

"You're not aiming high enough. Starrick has influence in every branch of society. We need to match him," the twin corrected him in a monotonous, almost harsh tone, looking into his eyes.

"I see what you're saying, Evie.We need the Rooks," the brother retorted with even more fiery and decisive tone, trying to persuade his sister to collaborate with his idea of creating a gang.  
"You're not starting a gang called The Rooks," Evie protested with a firm and asserted tone, her eyes slightly winking in an exhausted gesture.  
"You barely can play chess, and you want to form a band called one of the pieces of the game?" Tessa's voice interrupted the twins' speech and, turning their heads in her direction, they looked at her intensely: Evie with a look perennially torn between sadness and disappointment, and this time also a small shade of gratitude; Jacob with a look that, if he had the power to kill, she would have already found herself dead on the ground.  
"Shut up," Jacob whispered between his teeth and with a sharp voice, giving fiery glances to Tessa, who, feeling in awe at their eyes, lowered her head discreetly.

"I believe I have an idea of my own," Henry pronounced, repeating the premature discussion that was about to be born between the two.  
He explained to him and, approaching the first piece of paper that was placed neatly on the desk, pointed it out.

"My ally in the force, Sergeant Abberline. I heard he's a master of disguise. Next up ... urchins," the Indian Assassin continued.  
"Urchins?" Jacob repeated distrustfully, raising an eyebrow and not trusting so much what Green said.  
"Urchins.Children make for excellent spies," Jayadeep confirmed in an obvious voice, explaining.  
"Clara O'Dea ..." Evie murmured, reading aloud the girl's name that was written on the sheet.  
"Smart as a whip, that one.Finally you would be wise to remember that Starrick never acts alone.There are gang leaders in every borough.You'll meet them soon enough, no doubt" he warned them in a low voice and, moving a few steps, he pointed to the last piece of paper.

"Kaylock Rexford, know for his ability to vanish before your eyes"  
"Shall we make him vanish for real?" the young Frye asked with mockery, while the corners of his mouth rose quickly in a lopsided smirk.  
"I suppose" Evie agreed, carefully examining and reading the image of the Blighters' band leader.

"One moment ..." Henry murmured and, bending and throwing another of yellowed paper from a drawer, handed it to Evie, who, after casting a fleeting look at him, took it gently.  
"Mh ... a Templar target you might want to look into.Be cautious.It's rough out there," Green warned him in a serious, low, and severe voice, giving a quick glance at the way he could glimpse a little from the windows.  
"Don't worry about me, Greenie.I can handle few thugs"the male twin reassured him with a decisive and careless tone at the same time, nodding his head to Henry before giving a last, deep and intense look at Tessa, and then leave the shop with Evie at his side, who also gave her a look to which the girl had to learn to accept: sadness, disappointment.

After Henry had made syre that the Frye twins had gone out and walked away from the shop, he turned his head toward Tessa who, still standing at his side behind the desk, glared at the door left ajar.  
He could not believe that she had told him untrue things about her, that she had lied to him.  
"Tes ..." but he could not finish his sentence that, quickly, the girl came out from behind the desk and, with quick and plush steps, moved the long curtain of the door that gave the other side of the store and then enter back.  
He did not think twice about it: he immediately reached her and, as soon as he crossed the back of the shop, he found his friend who, sitting with her legs dangling over the edge of a counter, looked at nothing with that lost gaze again,and that glassy and dark one that made Jayadeep's heart sad.

"You can't look at me with the same eyes, Jay, I know," the young woman murmured in a low, calm voice, and the infinite sadness that Henry saw in her big and green eyes when she looked up, only made him sadden more.  
"Why do you say that?" Jayadeep asked quietly and confusedly, advancing a few steps until he came close to a wooden stool, which he took and placed gently in front of her;he sat on top of it and, resting his forearms over his thighs, he put his hands together and waited for an answer.  
"I lied to you about my life, Jayadeep, that's why I say it" she replied in a low voice, the shame that colored her cheeks and a light blush,but that made Henry chuckled with amusement.

"What do you find funny about what I said?" The girl promptly asked, her forehead wrinkled in a confused expression, as she watched her friend giggle amused.  
Henry raised his hands as a sign of surrender to her stormy and rash reaction, and stopped laughing.  
"I find it amusing that, although you've known me for quite a few years, I actually find out that you don't know me at all" he explained in a pedantic tone, genuinely smiling at Tessa, who raised an eyebrow in a questioning expression.  
"Tessa, my dear friend, how could I ever look at you with other eyes? I know you all too well to tell you that if you lied to me, there will have been a good reason"Henry said in a purely sweet tone, giving Tessa a loving smile which, in response, slightly raised the corners of her mouth.

"And I will give you as long as possible and unimaginable time to explain. Of course, the moment will be when you will tell me," the Assassin continued quietly and calmly and, rising from the stool, he went to the door that gave the part in front of the shop after giving a reassuring smile to Tessa, who carefully examined his figure walking towards the door.  
"And the moment will not be today, you can be sure," the girl said firmly, the stubbornness that never failed in her behavior.  
"I had no doubts about that," Henry chanted, and, moving the door curtain slightly, went back to the front of the store.  
"Good!" Tessa exclaimed in a loud and slightly arrogant voice, moving slightly to try and see Jayadeep.

_'Pride will be her ruin,'_ Henry thought as he rearranged the papers that were still resting on the desk, putting them back in their respective places.

But then, after a few minutes in which they passed in a silence to say the least religious, Tessa's low and shy voice reached his ears:  
"Jay?"  
"Yes?" And what he heard later,made him raise the corners of his mouth in a pleased and satisfied smile.  
"I think it's the moment"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooo everyonee !!  
> Here is the second chapter of this new story!  
> I know, maybe it's a bit too long and maybe Jacob and Evie did not have so much scene ... and then, what did I tell you? In this second chapter, some facts about the protagonist's past were revealed! Ta-daa!!  
> Ehm... but better than nothing ;)  
> In the next chapter, almost everything will be revealed!  
> That said, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Ciaa! ;3


	3. •III |Of memories and truth|

"I can't believe it ..." Evie whispered in a whisper and, as soon as they left Mr. Green's shop, a liberating but heavy sigh came out of her rosy lips.She lowered her head and the events of a few moments before passed for the umpteenth time before her eyes: her old friend a few steps away from her,her eyes that had a dark and glassy veil in front them,her voice,her face,everything about her had changed but,at the same time and in a strange way,she had always remained the same.  
When Evie entered the shop with determined and determined steps,she found herself in front of a ghost:she was not sure who that young woman she was in front of,but when her ice-colored eyes met her green ones,she heard little chills quickly run down her back.

She had also given a slight and fugitive look to her brother,trying not to be the only one to feel a strange feeling inside,noting that even his eyes were slightly confused...and that did not change in the slightest,when from the mouth of Green came out the name of the girl they had known for a lifetime and who had not seen for years.  
And if her look was of pure amazement, disbelief and confusion,Jacob's was completely different:with the corners of his lips slightly raised in a grimace,his eyes full of contempt and resentment,he looked at Tessa with a look filled with indifference ,anger and above all coldness.

Emotions and feelings more plausible and understandable for such a situation,but Evie continued to ask why she had not distinguished,had not seen the amazement,the disbelief and sadness in the eyes of Jacob as unlike there were in hers.  
She could not understand the reaction, so strange and certainly not predictable, that his brother had at the sight of their childhood friend...she expected a quite different reaction:a powerful,bitter and flat laugh or ironic and heavy jokes.She would have expected everything and more from him,but never ever that strange reaction:chilling behavior,looks and phrases cold and full of anger and resentment.

The female twin tried to think and formulate what had just happened, but it was impossible with Jacob who did nothing but walk up and down, quickly and nervously, in front of her who, still with her head down on the ground, repeated the name of the their friend as if it were a mantra.  
"Can't you believe in what?" suddenly snapped Jacob,turning quickly to his sister,raising a look on her purely confused and thoughtful,looked into her eyes.  
"That did we find ourselves in front of the same Tessa Knight we knew,or that she behaved as if nothing had happened?"his brother asked loudly in a bitter tone, spreading his arms in a gesture as theatrical as harassing, making accordingly turn many heads of people that walking beside him.

"Jacob..." the young woman began with a tone that was already on the reprimand, but she could not finish her sentence, however, that he abruptly interrupted her:  
"No, don't tell me _'Jacob'_ , sister. Not this time, because you know perfectly well that I'm right" the young Frye proclaimed with annoyed and authoritative tone, pointing to himself with one hand while removing the hat he had it on his head with the other and was waving it in front of his face;as if all this caused him great nervousness and an infinite anxiety at the same time.  
And it was totally and absolutely useless to deny Evie's 'I can not believe it': he too, like his sister, could not believe that, after so many years,he found himself before his yes the same Tessa;her own childhood friend,the same girl with whom he trained late afternoon in the garden of his old house in Crawley...the same sun-faced and joyful girl who had now become a beautiful,attractive and pretty young woman.

"And I know that look too well,Evie," the brother warned her, advancing a few steps forward until he found himself in front of his sister who, with a thoughtful look, thought of what had happened a short time before.Jacob,meanwhile,half closed the eyes with two slits and began to scrutinize the face of the twin intensely and carefully,and then move away with a purely shocked and amazed look at the same time.  
"No...don't tell me you want to..." and this time it was Evie's turn to interrupt her brother:

"Jacob, try to reason,she's Tessa! The same Tessa with whom we spent our childhood and our youth!" Evie exclaimed in a voice divided between exasperated and annoyed,eyes wide in an obvious expression and trying to make reason,once and for all,to her twin.

"And you,dear sister,you must try to understand that Tessa, the same Tessa with whom you spent entire evenings reading dusty books,is the same one who lied to us,who has forgotten us as if nothing had happened.The same, identical and unique Tessa Knight who did nothing but tell lies to everyone! "the male twin exclaimed in a hoarse voice, scratched by anger, the evident resentment, fury and disappointment that could be clearly seen in his hazel eyes.  
But the young woman did not want to give up,and so she tried again to change her stubborn twin's mind, not before giving a quick and fleeting glimpse into the Green store:  
"All the people are wrong,they make mistakes and forget, but we must always be able to forgive" she uttered in a low, calm and serene voice, but with that urgency, with the worry and the sadness that sparkled inside her ice-colored eyes.

And Jacob, rolling his eyes and making bitter and contemptuous grimace with his mouth, began to walk away, with his sister immediately in tow.  
"Oh yes, we forgive everything and everyone! We are merciful,we feel pity and compassion for the people who stabbed us behind!" he exclaimed suddenly and gesturing with his hands as he walked quickly, his first mellifluous and falsely kind voice and that was a clear imitation of her sister,had finally become contemptuous,cold and flat.  
"I don't feel pity," she replied with a slightly annoyed tone, staring at him a look of reproach. And the young Frye, as soon as he heard that phrase come out of his sister's mouth, suddenly stopped in the middle of the street, then turned away on his side and plant a smatteret and mocking look at her at the same time.

"In my opinion, you're wrong, in a big, terrible and overwhelming mistake.By doing this,feeling this for Tessa you do nothing but make things worse.Why forgive her,after all she did?Why forgive, why forget everything this much?She left, forgetting us,abandoning us and trampling our feelings. Not a letter, not a visit, not just a heck of a new" and the words so cold, full of meaning and pronounced with a serious, authoritative tone and too much proud, they sounded too truthful to Evie's ears...especially to hers.

And, after seconds eternally infinite in which they passed in a tremendously chilling silence, Jacob resumed talking:  
"Just silence.Nothing else. And maybe my words will seem too hasty or too philosophical for someone like me, but I can't do it Evie, not after what she did to me," he murmured, his tone now become serious, quiet, and calm, his eyes shone with what his sister managed to distinguish, to recognize, as sadness and disappointment.  
"Jacob, are you asking me to forget Tessa?"

"No. But you're asking me too much, Evie. You're asking me to forgive her."

And Jacob really wanted to be able to forgive Tessa but, for a specific reason, he could not. He did not want to forgive her.  
The scar was still too open.  
The memories still too vivid, close and impressed in his soul.

What she had made him too painful to forget and forgive.  
The promise still too tied to his heart.  
_Tessa_...  
And she was not the same Tessa with whom he laughed, with which he joked, with whom he spoke, with whom he confessed, with whom he trained and with whom he could feel himself, and yet, now that he had met her again after years, not she seemed more the same ... and finally, was she not the same Tessa with whom he had made a promise?

No.She was not anymore. At least not for Jacob.

\-----

"Well,I'm here to listen to everything you have to tell me," Henry said gently, sitting down again on the stool he had previously placed in front of the counter, where the young Assassin was sitting with her legs dangling.She raised her gaze from the ground to her friend's face a few steps away from her who, meanwhile, looked at her with a kind and serene expression as he bent and rested his forearms on his thighs, then joining his hands together.  
The girl, squinting and trying to suppress a smile on her lips, uttered:

"It's-it's a very long story, Jay,and I don't want to ..." but her sentence, spoken in a low, insecure and shaky voice, was interrupted by the voice of Henry who, loud, confident and calm as ever, resounded for a couple of times in the back of the shop.

"And I don't want to do anything but listen to what you have to tell me," Jayeadeep interrupted her with a serene voice,his features purely sincere and gentle in the face;that same affectionate smile,which inspired confidence and security,was able to break that block that Tessa had inside herself that prevented her from speaking.  
So,straightening her back and sitting down on the counter well,she raised her head and cleared her throat a few times, then began to speak in a low, calm and sad tone,her eyes still obscured by that glassy and anguished veil:

"It's a long story, and I'm sure you'll know some details...well, where to start? There are so many things to say...the best thing to do is to start from the beginning.My father and mother were Owen and Emilia Kinght,both Masters Assassins and inseparable couple who, as my mother told me,loved each other hopelessly.My father was originally from Crawley but,for his Assassin missions and by the will of the Council,he was forced to move to London.And here he met my mother Emilia Navarro...and yes,Jay,don't hide the amazement in hearing this surname _'not English'_.In fact, my mother was Spanish and I can't tell you well the name of her hometown, but I know it was a lost village in a vast countryside.Why was my mother there? To tell you the truth the reason has always been unknown to me,but I only know that she met my father in a fight to the last blood against a Templar.She saved his life, as far as I remember. And from that moment on,one of them was the companion of the other, an inseparable and unbeatable couple ... companions of adventures, of missions, Assassins until my father did not ask for her hand. What to say? My mother accepted without thinking twice and after a while, they got married here in London. They married on July 7, 1843, the same year you were born. The weddings were discrete, made in a small forgotten church and not very popular, with only a shepherd and a few close guests.And guess who was among the guests? Ethan and Cecily Frye. You did not expect that, did you, Jay? Anyway...yes, they too were invited to the wedding, as they were good friends of my parents and my father knew Ethan since he had become an Assassin. So,a few months after the wedding, my mother was expecting her first child and my father, thinking that the frenziness and dangerousness of London was not suitable for raising a child,he decided to return to his old house in Crawley.And,after a year since the wedding,born their first child,as well as my older brother: Russell Knight. Meanwhile, the relationship between my family and that of the Frye only became more and more consolidated and close and,of course,my father began to prepare my brother for the Assassin training. Then,after three years,on a stormy night on December 1 1847,I was there... and that same night my father died.As soon as he heard the screams of a newborn baby in the room where my mother gave me life,he lost no time and ran to give the news to Ethan.And,as you may well know, in the same year also Jacob and Evie were born and also Cecily died,and Ethan was still very shaken and taken by a great sadness for his loss.The house of my parents and that of the Frye were not so far apart from each other, but in the tragic death my father was expecting a mercenary hired by the Templars, with the task of killing him. We don't know why...maybe a mission failed so well,the targets escaped...my father Owen died of a pistol shot in the chest,in the rain,with no one able to help him.Ethan found him shortly after,while he was heading towards my house to accept that all were well.He found my father in a pool of blood,too late to do anything. What about Ethan?He came to my house,and when he told my mother what had happened, she _'cried all the tears in her body'_ , like she said to me"Tessa stopped for moments that seemed eternally endless, and an almost rigorous silence embraced the two Assassins like a big and cold cloak.Henry, meanwhile, continued to look at her in a thoughtful and almost absorbed way,while listening to her words carefully .  
Sighing heavily,she resumed talking:

"So,she became a widow and with a son who no longer had a father and a daughter of a few weeks,she made a decision that cost her so much: leave for Spain,go to her home.But she did something,a gesture that I did not never understood and that, perhaps, I will never understand: she left only with my brother. And you will surely be wondering where she left me,and I will not be able to blame the amazed face you will do when I tell you...shhe gave me to Ethan. A few days before departure,my mother took me with her and went to knock on Frye's door, waiting to be in front of Ethan but, when the door opened,she found George Westhouse.He explained that Ethan had to leave for India to train a young boy aspiring Assassin...eh yes,don't make that face,you were that little boy,my dear Henry. You were about four years old,at that time,is not it?Anyway... my mother, despite the absence of Ethan and despite George's petitions to keep me with her,she went out to persuade Westhouse to keep me in custody. So, I was left by my mother in the arms of the Assassin, while her and my brother left for Spain. And from that moment on, everything changed: I spent all my childhood with the two Frye twins, playing, joking, laughing as only children can do. But Jacob and Evie grew up without a father's presence from 1847 to 1853 which, overall, covered a span of six long years. But Ethan,finished your training,returned to Britain in 1853...and you can imagine his astonishment when he found himself in front of another six-year-old girl who was not his. And he had no shadow of doubt, that I was the daughter of his dear friend.Unable to drive me away, he welcomed me with open arms...and also in a way to the recruiting,if I have to tell the truth.Ethan remained in Crawley from 1853 until 1860, for a total of seven years.Seven years in which he trained hard Jacob, Evie and me to become Assassins.Oh, and I'm alsmost forgt to add a detail: for all these years,my brother Russel came to see me once a year,and stayed at the Frye's house for a week,spending time with me and with the twins.Anyway...Ethan,in 1860, received a letter from India where it was written that _someone_ had been imprisoned and had to be executed...and,excuse me if I say this,but I just can't imagine a seventeen-year-old Jay who is in jail! "Tessa exclaimed with irony,only to try and hide a laugh that was purely amused. But the serious face and not amused at all for Henry,made her stop laughing.  
So,clearing her throat a couple of times and coming back together,she started talking:

"And that year,in 1860,it was the last year I saw Ethan,Jacob and Evie.My brother,when he came to see me,forced me to return to Spain from my mother with him.Of course I did not want to leave what I considered my home, from what I considered my family.I did not want to leave my life, I did not want to abandon Jacob, Evie, Ethan and even George.But it was an order and my mother's will and I had to accept it, willy-nilly. I was thirteen or fourteen when I arrived in the remote village where my mother lived. And here she explained everything to me:the story of her and my father,the marriage,my birth and the tragedy of that same night. But she not told me,she did not want to tell me why she did not bring me with her.So,the years passed and I continued my Assassin training thanks to my mother,my brother and some Assassins of the Spanish Brotherhood.Until I decided that it was time to go back to my dear Crawley...but my train to become an Assassin it was not yet finished,and for this I was sent to London to look for a certain Henry Green,the Assassin who watches over London, _'The Phantom'_. I don't remember the year I arrived here, but I know that you had just taken the shop...but I remember too well the face you did when I showed up at your door asking you to accommodate me"the girl's voice had become slightly ironic, when memories of years ago reappeared in front of her eyes when she had just arrived in London, without a place to stay, only a piece of paper with the name of her current friend on it.  
And Henry chuckled amused,as soon as Tessa reminded him of their first meeting.

"Yes, I remember well too. But it is also coming to my mind that you asked to me to help you improve your skills,"Jayadeep added in a monotonous and mocking tone, not taking his gaze from hers, which sparkled intensely with mockery.  
"Ah,yes...but at the time I was not aware that the little,poor Indian shopkeeper was not, and still is not, able to kill even a butterfly"the young woman sighed sadly, her lips that stood up in a mocking, sardonic smile as Henry rolled his eyes in an almost-assaulted gesture.  
"Returning to us.I'm still not explaining why the twins reacted in that way,as soon as they recognized you," he continued, frowning in an expression of pure confusion.

"Not so much Miss Frye, but her brother did not seem so pleased to see you again,"the Indian Assassin added, and leaned on Tessa a questioning look as he waited patiently for an answer.  
And her,unable to do without it,pulled a long,tired,heavy and melancholy sigh before explaining to her friend:

"Why did they react that way,you say?Simple,I did not live for eight,and maybe more,years.I did not write them a letter, I did not visit them.They reacted in a fair way,and I can't blame them in the least. It's a punishment just right for what I did to them,I can't complain. I abandoned them, letting our friendship go off like when you shut down flame of a candle. And Ethan's death did nothing but worsen the situation, further distancing the irrepressible desire to return. Remember that time when you received the news that he was dead and you found me with tears while I cried uninterruptedly here and I lied to you? Well, I cried because I considered Ethan a paternal figure and, despite his severe and composed character, I was very fond of him.I-I d-don't know why I did not return to them...I did not want to come back.Feelings of guilt?Remorse?Yes, maybe,but there was something more that kept me from returning to Crawley,coming back to them.Something deeper..."her words,whispered in a low,weak and trembling voice,were an imperceptible sound to the rest of the world and audible only and only in Henry's ears.

And he was about to say something, but Tessa preceded him making him consequently stay with his mouth open,continuing to speak:  
"A-and Jay...s-sorry m-me so-so much much if I lied about all this,if I lied to you all my life.Don't t get me wrong,please.I did not do it because I haven't trust in you and because I wanted to keep you all hidden...in fact I don't even know it and above all why I did. Maybe to forget the past, leaving everything behind and not thinking about everything that happened. Maybe I did it to leave a part of my life away.Just know t-that I-I'm terribilly sorry,and I can perfectly understand if from now on,now that you know the truth,you will behave in a different way in my regards"she finished in a voice even more shaky and sad,an expression of pure pain and melancholy that made her face darken;and Henry's heart stopped beating when he could see her guilt-filled eyes being wet from the tears that quickly ran down her cheeks.

"Tessa,please" he said in a low,calm voice,and that sounded like a plea to the girl's ears that,seeing her friend get up from the stool on which he had just sat,suddenly found herself enveloped by the Assassin's arms that yougently held her to him in a comforting and affectionate embrace.  
Pulling his arms slowly away from her and placing his hands lightly on her forearms,Henry give her one of that genuinely gentle,serene smiles that had always been able to cheer her up.

"How can you think about this?I repeat what I said a while ago:you've known me for quite a few years and at the same time you don't know me at all.How can I change towards you?I know you lied to me for your same good and I have nothing against this.Quiet,don't worry"he said in a reassuring and gentle voice,thus managing to calm Tessa and make her come back serene and reassured.

"Are you sure there's something else you should tell me?" Jayadeep asked,raising an eyebrow and looking deep into the green eyes of her friend,who at that moment sparkled intensely with a new and renewed light.  
And the young woman seemed to think about it for a few seconds...

_'Cross your heart, then'_ and her heart quickly stopped beating,as soon as his words resounded in her mind,spoken many years ago.  
She swallowed the lump in her throat,before smiling lightly at Henry.  
"M-more than sure,don't worry.And I thank you so much for your support for all this,Jay"

A few seconds passed that seemed endlessly eternal,with the only sounds of the busy London street coming in like muffled sounds in the shop.  
Seconds in which the two Assassins were embraced by a deadly silence.  
The same silence that was interrupted by Jayadeep,who,stretching an arm on the counter where Tessa was still sitting,suddenly uttered:

"Shall we play a game of chess?"he asked with a smile and a sing-song tone,opening the palm of his hand and showing the young girl a black rook.  
And the corners of Tessa's mouth raises up quickly in a bright,luminous smile,her eyes sparkling with radiance and sudden joy.  
"Ah,Jay,you know perfectly how to make me happy!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are,people,in another chapter!See?What did I tell you?In this chapter,Tessa's entire past emerged from the darkness,finally showing itself to the light!  
> I know,I know,maybe this chapter is too long and there is still no action and excitement.But from the next chapter it will change almost everything (at least I hope so)!
> 
> That said,I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Ciaaa ;3


	4. •IV |Of fear and coldness|

It was more than a week since the two Frye twins arrived in London;more than a week after their arrival,which only brought sadness,sorrow and regret to Tessa;more than a week since she suddenly found herself catapulted into her past, which she had always tried to keep hidden in her new life;more than a week since she had revealed all the truth of her true life to Henry,feeling her heart lighter than before but still with that imaginary weight that weighed heavily and annoyingly over her shoulders.

From the moment she revealed the truth and exposed the lies to Jayadeep,she felt more calm and serene,but she could certainly not deny that as soon as she heard her friend talk about the actions that the twins had done around Withechapel,she felt strange,confused and above all contrasting emotions within herself.

Sadness,as she had suddenly found herself before the raw and brutal reality; anger,as she felt all the small but very precious missions that the Frye twins performed every day,she wanted to join them as in the old days;envy, as she burned with the desire to try again that beautiful,unique and exciting emotion of when she fought shoulder to shoulder with Jacob,to try again the adrenaline that ran quickly in her veins when she ran away with him;the nostalgia,as she wanted with all her heart to return to act so discreet,silent and clean as when Evie was at her side.  
She lacked all of herself with unique and special emotions that only her two old friends were able to give her.

In that week, and maybe even more, Tessa did nothing but sit on the wooden stool behind the desk of Henry's shop, enclosing in her mind and thinking intensely and deeply to what happened,passively listening to information about the two Assassins .  
Occasionally she stepped out of the shop,spurred on by Henry who encouraged her to take _'a healthy and good breath of air'_ and _'go see the changes at Withechapel'_.  
And then, forced by her friend to get out of the dim light of the shop and expose herself to the light of the morning, however,she came out reluctantly outside, with the tremendous fear of being able to find herself in front of one of the twins. 

So,on a cloudy afternoon,she stepped out of Jayadeep's shop for the first time in weeks.  
As soon as she came out,she wore her white hood over her head cautiously, trying to prevent encounters and clashes along her path.  
She looked around slowly, and then began to walk along the sidewalk with slow and plush steps, and could not hide the obvious astonishment when she realized that the streets of Withechapel were more crowded than usual: women who walked quietly and spoke quietly between of them;children who joyfully played in the streets...everything was wrapped up in a large and welcoming cloak,which embraced the streets with a delicate grasp,submerging everything in a tremendous,unusual and inhuman tranquility.

And that did not worry a little Tessa that, increasing its trend, began to walk with fast steps and slightly noisy in the streets, suddenly finding herself running and sneaking into the darkest streets of Withechapel,as if she were going to looking for someone,as if she were running away from a deadly enemy.  
So,not knowing exactly where her feet were carrying her,the young Assassin found herself in a place known to her: in one of the Blighters' stronghold...or rather, what _was_ supposed to be an enemy stronghold. No band emblem,no sniper posted on the roofs:no sign of the Blighters.

There was no one, excluding some men and some women who, wearing green and yellow clothes, were talking and joking with each other, each time giving timid and suspicious looks to Tessa who, with an expression of confusion and curiosity on her face, looked around.  
What happened to all the Blighters?  
But everything was clearer to her and she grimaced nonchalantly with her mouth, when she remembered that Henry, a few days earlier, informed her that the twins were gradually removing Withechapel from the numerous Blighters who occupied the neighborhood.

She raised her head and pulled a long, heavy sigh, as if just thinking of her two old friends gave her a harrowing feeling of fatigue and heaviness;she closed her eyes for a brief moment and then opened them again,starting to look at the gray sky clouds,an omen that another downpour would be poured over London. She continued to stare at the sky with a very thoughtful look, thinking back and remembering what happened a few weeks before: the meeting with the twins, the lies that came to light and the reality that was sinking in the dark...everything had been impressed in the mind,in the heart,of her. All,nothinh excluded,not even the scornful,cold and disgusting way with which Jacob looked at her.

But her thoughts that were terribly confused,were interrupted by the sound of light and silent steps that, making Tessa's head lower, were approaching her from behind.The steps were getting closer and closer,the emotion that made her palpitate quickly,the heart is getting stronger,the feeling of being observed more and more intense.  
And so, turning suddenly on the other side with already her hidden blade that sparkled slightly in the light that was there that afternoon,she found herself in front of the only person who would not expect to meet at that time and in that place.

Stopping the weapon a few inches away from the poor man's face,she breathed a sigh of relief and a violent wave of liberation swept away the tension that had arisen within.  
"Henry..." she whispered in a slightly shaky voice, retracting the hidden blade with a quick gesture of her wrist, trying to keep the expression of amazement hidden that could be clearly read in her face.

Jayadeep, in turn, raised the corners of his mouth in a light and almost invisible smile.  
"Finally I found you,Tessa.May can I ask what are you doing here?" he asked quietly, reaching out and pointing to the former Blighters stronghold.  
"I was looking around, as you suggested," she replied in a strange low voice, not belonging to her, sighing again and returning to look around.

"But I can ask you the same question, Jay," the young woman suddenly uttered, turning in the direction of the Assassins and looking down at him.  
"What are you doing here?" she continued, raising an eyebrow in a purely confused gesture, waiting patiently for an answer.  
"I was looking for you,we have to go as soon as possible to the station that is just a few meters from here," Henry replied, his voice suddenly urgent and impatient and, not wasting any more time, quickly took Tessa by an arm and dragged her away from that place.  
But the girl, frowning in a confused gesture, planted her feet on the ground and freed herself quickly from his grip on her arm.  
Jayadeep turned back and looked at his friend with a questioning expression, not understanding why she had stopped.

"Come on Tessa, there's no more time. I'll tell you all the way back," he urged her with a slight impatience,the sky more and more covered with dark clouds full of water,the shadows of the evening that were quickly embracing the streets and that climbed over the walls of the buildings around them and the sun disappearing on the horizon.  
But the young Assassin continued to look at him in an authoritative and decisive manner, while backing away a few steps. And Henry, knowing full well that it would not be easy at all to move the girl,sighed in an obliging manner.

"As you may well know,the Frye twins freed Withechapel from all the Blighters. They also released a lot of children from factory work.They did..." but his explanation was abruptly interrupted by Tessa:  
"They did a good job,yes,I know.I saw that too," she continued in a bored voice, rolling her eyes and slightly raising her head in an almost harassed gesture.

And Green, pretending not to have seen her friend's strange behavior, continued to explain:  
"And for this, Kylock is challenging them in a gang fight for the territory. All here" concluded the Assassin, opening his arms slightly.

A silence to say the least religious fell between the two who, standing opposite each other, looked into each other's eyes while crows above them croaked and flew from one roof to another, thus interrupting that inhuman stillness.  
Tessa nodded slowly with her head, lowering her head and starting to stare at the stone road below her.  
"Now that I've explained everything to you, could you please come with me? I have to meet Evie and Jacob to tell them about Kylo...where are you going?" Henry stopped to give her further explanations as soon as he saw that his friend had given the shoulders and was gradually moving away from him.

The young woman stopped and, looking at Jayadeep over her shoulder, uttered:  
"Go back to the shop,you will find me there" and with this she went on to continue walking, but stopped a second time, turning to face the divided look between the serious and the confused of Henry. 

"And not for nothing, but I do not want to accompany you," she concluded in a falsely sweet and sad voice, a faint smile on her rosy and full lips.

And Green,letting an amused snort come out of his mouth,he slowly shook his head almost in a sorry way.  
"I do not even ask you why,because I already know it," he said in a slightly pedantic tone,raising his voice so as to be heard by her who,in answer,remained silent.

"You are afraid,Tessa" and she felt naked from all the barriers, from all the armor that had been built around since that day.  
With a few simple words,Jayadeep had been able to describe what the young woman felt inside every time she heard of her two old friends;he had managed to describe that strange,unique and faint spark that made her eyes shimmer slightly.  
Fear,a tremendous,terrible,infinite and uncontrollable fear when she thought she would have to look back,willy-nilly,the two Frye;a horrible fear when she realized that she would have to face, once again,all he real emotions,all the consequences of her actions.

And no, this time she could not keep her emotions hidden...at least not to Henry.

A thunder boomed,suddenly,in the sky and its sound can and loudly became soft and muffled,until it disappeared in endless echoes in that cold atmosphere.  
The Indian Assassin took a few steps forward,until he found himself a few inches away from his friend who,meanwhile,had her gaze lowered still on the ground. With delicacy worthy to that of the weight of a feather,he put his hands on her forearms and,starting to caress them lightly,she raised her eyes on his,and when they met Henry saw that, not for the first time in those weeks, they were wet with tears.

"Tessa, listen to me well.You have to stop looking back into the past,you have to stop making decisions,to act according to your old life.You have to stop, once and for all,to be influenced by your past.You do not live there anymore,you live here in the present"Jayadeep's voice was firm with firmness,as he shook Tessa's body lightly as if to draw her attention to his words.  
"By behaving in this way,being afraid that Evie and Jacob can no longer forgive you,that they can no longer trust you,do nothing but move further away from them.And they expect this from you: that you stay as you are now,continuing to crucify you with this sense of guilt that you carry with you for years,not trying to learn and to remedy your mistakes.But you,Tessa Knight,you have to do the opposite,you have to prove that you're always the same,you must prove them that they can have trust like before"Henry pronounced with an authoritative voice, the obvious affection,the urgency and the supplication that Tessa could read in his eyes,completely shocked her.

They fell again,in a silence almost chilling,where other thunders resonated powerful in the air,a sign that the storm was getting closer.  
A single syllable did not come out of the young woman's mouth,limiting herself only to raising a tacit gaze of gratitude and conscience on Jayadeep,as she began to walk toward the meeting place.

And yes,she could not really deny it: _she was afraid_.

* * *

The route was not one of the best:the two Assassins walked side by side with fast but fugal steps,while a tremendously heavy and totally unusual silence between them surrounded thw two.

The sun had long since disappeared on the horizon,letting the shadows of the evening seize the streets of the English Empire in a fast grasp while the thunders were only thundering ever more powerful in the sky.  
Tessa had not known how long she and Henry had been there,waiting for the twins to arrive,wrapped in a light cold evening.  
And that expectation seemed to be eternally infinite,punctuated slowly by the only dazzling noise of silence,while a tremendous anxiety did nothing but increase inside the young woman.

Suddenly,a flash illuminated the sky for a few moments,almost making the Assassin believe that the sun had magically reappeared.  
The same flash that illuminated two figures who,with resolute and quick steps,approached the two.

And Tessa's heart lost at least a couple of beats,when,thanks to that lightning light,she managed to distinguish the features of her familiar faces.

"Ah,there you are!" Henry suddenly exclaimed,looking up when he saw that the Frye twins stood before him;and after Evie and Jacob greeted him with invisible nods of their head,their eyes immediately moved to the still and silent figure of their old friend:the ice-colored eyes of the female twin digging and penetrating deep into the dark green ones of her,trying to follow the advice given her brother some weeks before:do not feel pity,do not feel compassion...do not forgive.  
And Tessa,unconsciously and not even realizing the gesture she did,slowly backed away a few steps as the investigators,deep and dark hazel eyes of the male twin leaned on her:she felt in a strange and unique awe,while the young man scrutinized her carefully,but above all coldly and in a detached and indifferent manner,from head to toe.

So,swallowing noisily the lump that had formed in the throat,looked away from the two to look elsewhere,trying in every way not to be seen fearful and scared.  
Henry,trying to lend a hand to his friend,withdrew the attention of the twins to himself.  
"All that stands between you and Withechapel is the villain controlling the borough," Jayadeep continued in a serious voice, watching the two Assassins intensely while another thunder sounded powerful in that cold atmosphere.  
"Kylock has demanded you settle the claim for territory in a gang fight"  
"His loss" suddenly uttered Jacob with a cheeky and mocking tone,spreading his arms in a theatrical gesture,his voice that caused long and endless shivers along Tessa's back.

And Green,throwing out his hands behind his back,showed the two twins his two kukri:  
"Here.I'm sure you can put this to better use than I can" he murmured softly,and the twin-eyed eyes sparkled with intense flicker as he saw the weapons that the Indian Assassin was holding out to them.  
"What's this Greenie,Assassin Christmas?" Jacob sked with a bitter irony,abruptly pulling one of the kukri out of Jayadeep's hands,with which he quickly walked away a few steps and then began maneuvering with his new weapon,as if he were a child excited for his new toy.Suddenly,in front of Tessa's eyes, he young boy reappeared,who, many years before,was looking for the first time,with incredulous and admirable eyes,the hidden blade.

And the young girl was amazed at how her old friend had not changed into one,tiny and small appearance.  
"Gather your allies" Henry concluded with a light and invisible smile on his lips.

While Tessa was busy looking intently at the sky and feeling some small drops of rain falling in her face,Jayadeep,after making sure the two Frye were far enough,quickly approached his friend.  
"I'm coming back to the shop,you know that the fights are not for me," he said with a slight sarcasm,which made the corners of her mouth smile in a purely amused smile when she understood the meaning of his words.She nodded slightly as she watched her friend walk away quickly.  
"Will you join them?"Green asked suddenly,nodding his head behind her shoulders and,when sheturned back,saw a group of the same men and women with the green clothes she had seen previously.  
"No,not for now at least.But I will warn you when,and especially if,they win" she murmured with a faint smile on her lips,turning over to look at the Assassin,nodding his head,said goodbye and then quickly go to his shop.

Tessa, once climbed on the roof of a house that gave a wide and good view of that small space near the station of Withechapel,crouched not caring the heavy drops of water that,almost as if they were impertinent,fell quickly from the sky to then collide strongly against the hooded and wet figure of her.

The fight between the two rival gangs began shortly after Herny left Tessa alone and her,after settling on that house,could not not remain purely amazed when she saw the twins fight:Jacob collided and killed his enemies with an immense,infinite and almost devastating fury,almost as if at that moment he had lost all the light of reason,killing the Blighters with ardor as the kukri slashed,in a blink of an eye,whatever and any thing or person that happened before him;Evie,unlike her brother,was quite the opposite:she killed with a lethal,calculating and fatal precision,and Tessa almost seemed to see the female twin's moves like dance moves...of a deadly dance:her hidden,wet blade now bloody,sparkled noxious every time a light illuminated the sky.

But she was able to distinguish an invisible detail that shared the two Frye method:the techniques,their moves,the way they killed,the fast way they moved,the unpredictable way they reacted,everything that was teaching their father.  
The both of them was the perfect and equal copy,the mirror of Ethan.

Tessa did not know how long she looked at the emptiness,with her eyes lost in nothingness,because she was too busy to flood her mind with those far away,but at the same time,close,painful and happy memories of many years before.  
But when she raised her head to see if the fight between the two gangs was over,she could not find the two Frye twins:underneath and in front of her there was nothing but dead bodies of Blighters disappeared on the ground,and still the group of allies of the twins who,happy for the victory now assured,celebrated victoriously among themselves.

A lightning bolt suddenly pierced the sky,making Tessa slightly frighten that,because of the strong sound that followed that moment of pale and cold light,she awoke from that thoughtful state that had enfolded her entirely.  
So,looking up,she could not help but hide the obvious astonished expression that appeared in her face,when she saw Jacob and Evie,unharmed,standing on a roof of a carriage of a train.

Their faces were framed by pride and while both scrutinized the remaining Blighters.  
Then,all of a sudden,the powerful,high and charged voice of authority of the male twin evil rose in the air,repeating itself for a few short seconds in infinite echoes:

"Kylock is dead!" he burst out in a hoarse,scratched voice,raising a hand high in which he held a brooch with the Templars symbol between two fingers;the same brooch that he threw to the ground in a load of rage...or was it satisfaction?  
"You know you have the chance to join our ranks!We welcome all who would stand up to Starrick and his cutthroats!" 

Evie exclaimed decisively,her ice-colored eyes peering intently at the Blighters down on the ground,their faces scarred frightened,they looked at tho Assassin with a sense of brutal surrender,so,after a moment of silence and hesitation,a Blighter came forward with determined steps:taking off a uniform of the gang with the former was opponent,he wore fast those green clothes,now a proud smile on his face.

And Jacob,suddenly jumping from the roof of the carriege and landing with a thud in front of the new member of his band,looked at him with a slight mocking sneer on his lips and then open his arms wide:  
"Welcome to the Rooks!" he proclaimed in a captivating voice,a dazzling smile of satisfaction when he turned from his _'Rooks'_ , who shouted and exclaimed victoriously.

And Tessa,slowly rising from her observation post from above the roof of that house,took one last look at the twins who,still,exclaimed and rejoiced at their victory before turning her back on them and heading towards Henry's shop,with the rain still falling heavily on her hooded figure.

* * *

"A hideout on the rails!What an excellent idea" eclaimed as amazed as slightly happy Jayadeep,once he entered the train subtracted to Kaylock,carefully looking around while in his arms he had a box full of objects taken from his shop that he leaned on a wooden desk.

As soon as Tessa arrived at the Assassin's shop of curiosities,he wasted no time:he began to collect papers,sheets,files,books and other important items before her friend could accompany him with what would be their new hideout;Henry's difference,the young woman was not so excited by their new lair...because it would have meant that the twins would always have with her.  
But for Henry,of course,it was a _'very good,excellent opportunity to reconsolidate your friendship,make them return their trust in you'_ and other phrases that Tessa,specifically,did not listen to.

The train was as good as it was messy,and she knew very well that Jayadeep would give her the task of giving a quick cleaning,like when he asked her to the store.  
But,despite everything,it was a great hiding place for four Assassins.  
Evie's voice brought the young woman down to earth,stopping once and for all that day of getting lost in deep and intricate thoughts and memories.

"Yes,it all worked out rather well.Now,I would like to follow up a lead on..." Evie never finished her sentence,said in a quiet and serious voice,as she stopped immediately when she saw that her brother,that he was not paying attention to just one of her words,was busy handling a strange thing that Tessa had never seen.  
"Jacob, this is serious" she uttered with a voice as serious and reproachful,looking slightly at her brother who,in response,did not move a step.  
"I'm not doing anything until this gets fixed" Jacob replied in an indifferent and passive voice,not distracting his gaze totally focused on that object.

And Tessa found herself before,for the second time in that interminable evening,a boy who did not answer seriously and badly to his father,and the girl could not hide a light and invisible nostalgic smile in remembering those particular scenes that characterized the whole of her childhood.  
"I believe I know someone who can help with that" Henry interjected,watching the young Frye with a purely kind look,which faded completely when he saw the almost disgusted grimace that Jacob did with his mouth.

"I knew you would,Greenie," he whispered between his teeth,an irony full of bitterness in his voice,his nose curling in a faint grimace of smartness.

* * *

"Oh Jesus!"

A few days later,Herny and Tessa brought the twins Frye into one of their ally's lab,as well as a close friend,Alexander Bell,who would be able to fix that sort of grappling hook that the two siblings had taken from Kaylock during the fight...at least,only Henry accompanied them.  
Tessa,indeed,completely forgetting about the meeting with the Frye,of which Jayadeep warned her personally,in the moment that something flashed in her mind she found herself running in the direction of the Lambeth district,with anxiety and the concern that only grew more and more.

"Oh Jesus,what will I do in front of the twins?" she wondered aloud,as she ran with all the speed her legs could offer her and with all the strength she could have in her body.The wind was slightly lashing her face,causing her to drop the hood that had lowered her shoulders on her head,revealing her long,wavy black hair that went before her eyes.  
While dodging obstacles that she found on her path and was going to slam violently against people who,in addition to looking bad shouted against words inadequate and polite,Tessa rethinked the other information that gave Jayadeep about her two friends;to what the young woman had understood,the twins had totally different purposes:Evie was focused and wanted to find another Piece of Eden that was somewhere in London,the Shroud;while Jacob,unlike his sister,wanted glory and fame for his new reputation as _'the boss of the Rooks'_ , but he also eagerly wanted to free the whole of London from the Templars,killing them one by one.

Both were very honorable,noble purpose and of which Ethan would surely have been very proud,but they were also very daring and difficult to accomplish...and Tessa was beginning to wonder if she,one day,could help her two old friends in the conquer London and free it from the strong and powerful grip of the Order.  
So,with her mind blurred and occupied entirely by the confused and numerous thoughts and the muscles of her legs that screamed pity,she managed to get to Aleck's laboratory.

Once she reached the building se was interested in,she did not even bother to knock that,open the door with such force that she almost fell with her face to the ground,she immediately catapulted inside,entering the room where Aleck passed most of his day.  
Stopping on the threshold of the door,she began to gasp as never before,her chest rising and lowering in a fast movement,her heart palpitating as if at any moment could burst,while two figures in front of her looked at her in a strange way.

"HERE I AM! Here-here I-I am!" she stammered in a faint voice.  
She raised her head slowly from her forearm that she had placed on the door frame,finding herself before the two questioning and confused expressions of Herny and Jacob.  
"Oh,good moorning Tessa...I see that you remembered" Jayadeep greeted her with a slight smile on his face as soon as his eyes met the tremendously tired of his friend.  
"Ple-please t-tell me t-that I-I'm not too-too late" she murmured in a broken-hearted voice that took almost all her breath away.

"No,you did not arrive too late" Jacob suddenly replied with a mocking voice,always that same bitter irony that could be clearly distinguished in his voice and his gestures.He spread his arms and pointed to the empty lab with a theatrical gesture,then looking at her who,in response,raised her eyebrows in confusion:she was more than conscious that Jacob was clearly kidding,and gave him a look that,if had the power to kill,he would have been long dead to the ground.  
"Just before you arrive,Miss Frye and Aleck are out with his carriage.Evie has kindly offered to help Aleck adjust his fuses on the top of Big Ben" Henry explained in a calm,gentle voice.

And the young woman,bending over in two and resting her palms on her knees,lowered her head heavily and then let out a heavy and tired sigh from her mouth;odding her head, she straightened up,casually avoiding the look of the male twin and,walking with slow steps towarda the Indian Assassin, uttered in a whisper:  
"Excuse me Jay,but I had completely forgotten about the meeting with Aleck.I..." she politely excused herself,but her sentence was quickly interrupted by his voice:

"Do not worry,I was just going back to the train to finish organizing something that will be useful for the other missions," Green informed her with a slightly happy smile on her face,and Tessa knew he was hiding something from her...she was more than sure.

"W-What? You can not leave me here!" she exclaimed as she stepped forward as soon as she saw Henry stumble over to the entrance door left open by her,and not bothering whether Jacob had heard her or not.

Jayadeep spread his arms slightly,shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant gesture.

"Why not?You came just in time to keep Jacob company" he replied with an invisible mockery,as he stepped out of the laboratory.  
"And then,as you say,better late than never,Tessa.You will find me in the train,see you later" he nodded to the two Assassins who,in silence,looked at him:Frye with a vitreous and indifferent look;the young woman,on the other hand,with a tremendously pleading look.

"Jay!Jay,please!Jay!" she whispered exclaiming,a whispered voice between her teeth as she saw,with no chance to do anything,her friend leave and close the door behind him.  
She sighed regretfully for the umpteenth time that day,lowering her shoulders heavily and thinking,knowing perfectly that Jayadeep had left her alone with Jacob specifically.And Tessa did not know if she was grateful,or if she was angry to Henry for the next few weeks.  
So,cursing billions of times inside,she turned away and immediately her gaze met and chained herself with that of the male twin:they looked intently into the eyes for moments that seemed eternally infinite in that chilling silence,before Jacob quickly and acrimoniously looked away from hers.

He began watching in the Aleck laboratory,examining the objects on the shelves with little attention and interest,absently reading what was written on a blackboard or on sheets of paper left untidily on top of the wooden desk;Jacob felt like being torn on his back,he felt terribly observed and in fact,when he turned quickly back,he saw Tessa's green eyes carefully scrutinizing him from head to toe:and her heart lost a beat when she realized that he noticed that she was looking at him intensely... _very_ intensely.  
The young woman suddenly felt an emptiness in her stomach when she began to scrutinize Jacob:tall,with the body of a man,his muscles were siting around his clothes,his light and dark beard did nothing but stand out even more the features almost sculpted of his face,that scar on the right eyebrow that had always made her heart beat strongly.

Everything about him had changed but,at the same time,it remained the same.

And,as for Tessa,Jacob's heart also stopped for a few brief seconds when his hazel eyes met her green ones:as he was no longer a street kid,she was no longer a little girl.Now she was a young and pretty woman with big and equally beautiful green eyes,which the young Frye always tasted in getting lost inside.And he certainly could not deny it:she had become a beautiful and attractive woman.  
She,feeling the weight of that chilling and at the same time embarrassing atmosphere over her shoulders,cleared her throat a few times before speaking:

" _I'm sorry_ " Tessa said in a slightly hoarse,low voice,and swore hundreds of times in her mind when she noticed the countenance,serious and confused face that Jacob gave her.  
Reaction more than palatable,because that _'I'm sorry'_ could be attributed to various things,gestures,actions,precise mistakes that she had done in the past.  
So,shaking her head slightly,she continued:

"I-I'm sorry for being late" she immediately corrected herself with a faint,invisible smile on her rosy lips,which immediately disappeared when she saw his shoulders rise and fall in a nonchalant gesture.  
"It did not change our life,after all" he replied in a flat,indifferent tone, lturning over to the other side,not before giving her a cold look that almost shivered at the young Assassin.

They fell again in silence,to say the least inhuman if it had not been for the sounds of the road that entered the laboratory like muffled and confused sounds.  
So,just to break that awful awkward quiet,Tessa resumed talking:  
"I know Ethan's death...I'm terribly sorry" she whispered,swallowing noisily the lump that had formed in her throat,stopping to breathe when she saw Jacob immobilize immediently.He turned slowly and looked at her over his shoulder,for then turning around on his side offering her a sad and bitter smile.  
"Ah,and so you're sorry,eh? And I thought you did not care about anyone" said the male Assassin in a falsely gentle tone,a mellifluous grin on his face as he advanced a few steps forward.

"I always cared about Ethan" she replied,apparently offended by his words,while she did not remove eye contact with her old friend.He laughed nasally,puffing and smiling at her sentence.  
"And that's why you did not come to the funeral?" Jacob asked in a bitter voice,his mouth curved into an invisible sad smile,which made the girl's heart cry.  
"No..I-I do not know..I-I'm sorry" she stammered again,not lowering her sad and purely melancholy look,which only became more than frightened and astonished when the voice of Jacob resounded in that small room:  
"Is that the only thing you can say?Do you have anything else to regret,to apologize?" he blurted out in a loud,authoritative voice,his hazel eyes glowing intensely with rage and hatred.

And Tessa opened and closed her lips a couple of times,looking,trying and wanting to say something,but only syllables and meaningless words came out of her mouth.  
Jacob came even closer,until he found himself a few steps away from her silent and motionless figure,and twisted his lips in mocking sorrow when he could make out the regret in her eyes.  
"Do not think that I will rely on excuses said reluctantly to make me forget everything you did,and how you behaved. Maybe with Evie will work,if she does not take from the pity that she feel for you.But with me no" began the Assassin with a whisper whistled between his teeth,his voice as cold as a winter's night,his sharp tone more than a thousand blades and that hit Tessa strongly,as if they were fists given with anger and fervor.

"Maybe I will never forgive you,or maybe one day I will do it because I will be good and merciful.But remember, _Tessa_..." the way he spoke her name,caused long and endless chills that ran on the back of the girl.And Jacob,moving even closer to his old friend until their faces were a few inches away from each other,leaned slightly close to her ear.  
"I'll never be stupid enough to trust you a second time.So,do not try to win back my trust...you'll only waste time" he whispered in a low,extremely angry tone,moving slowly away from her ear,to then plant a gaze obscured by anger on her and,above all,by the coldness.  
"Was I clear enough?" the Assassin asked,arching an eyebrow in a falsely curious expression,waiting for an answer from her.

But all he could get was silence,an endless,enduring and chilling silence from Tessa who,on the contrary,wanted to say something,anything that could have changed the male twin,but it was impossible,not there she succeeded,it was as if she had lost the ability to speak,to pronounce even a single word.  
And she also swore that she felt her heart stop beating for a moment,then she felt her palpitation very quickly in her chest;she only scrutinized attentively and intensely,digging deep and dark inside his eyes.

The corners of his mouth contorted slowly in an indecipherable grimace,only to give way to a smile that was purely satisfied and almost proud.  
"Good,I'm taking that as tacit agreement" Jacob concluded with a mocking smile on his lips,moving away with a quick snap from Tessa's body.

And,as soon as she felt that the corners of her eyes began to pinch because of the tears that they wanted to get out,she closed her hands tightly in two fists until th knuckles became withe for the force ha she held back.  
She would not have started crying in front of him;she would not have given him the satisfaction of seeing her cry,not now, not after the harsh and hateful words he had said in her face.

Casting a last,sad,melancholy but at the same time an angry look at Jacob,she walked out of the laboratory with quick and plush steps,not turning back,strongly repressing the irrepressible desire to let the tears out of her eyes.

And Tessa was able to understand,to confirm something that,has always been the twin's arrival,she wondered: _Jacob had not changed._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is another chapter people!Maybe it came out too long...but details!And I know,there has not been so much action,but in the next chapter there will be (at least,I hope so...) !  
> That said,I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Ciaaa ;3


	5. •V |Of kindness and collaboration|

The silence reigned supreme in that isolated,dark and dirty alley where only the squeak and the rattle of rats in the slime strewn on the floor,was the only perceptible sound in the ears of the Assassin who,with the hood cautiously lowered on the head,looked around with careful and discreet look.  
The unpleasant odor emanating from the putrid and dirty waters of the Thames could also be felt,and above all,from that forgotten place of God:the most absolute filth and poverty characterized the streets of London's most shabby district,Withechapel.

Nothing new for her that,making sure she had the package under her clothes,looked around: it was certainly not the first time she was in front of a horrible and depressing spectacle like that.  
Even though the Frye had liberated Withechapel from the Blighters' outlet,that neighborhood remained the same,and the twins certainly could not change the degradation and poverty that had always denied that place.

The sudden and unexpected sound of loud,rusty and scratched coughs echoed in some echoes in that alley,made Tessa turn who,busy looking at the rats running frantically from side to side with a certain amount of attention,got a little frightened.Raising her gaze from the ground,she went in search of the person who coughed in that bad way,trying not to be distracted by an old man who,with his shoulders heavily resting on the cold and damp wall behind him,drank from a bottle of wine now completely empty.  
With his head hanging down,his eyes and face flushed,his clothes now reduced to rags and with a face marked by long and endless years of misfortune,he watched with a half-closed eye the inside of the glass bottle,hoping to find a few more drops of that reddish liquid.

The young woman sighed heavily,slowly turning her gaze to the other side,only to find herself in front of a worse scene:another man was at that moment in front of her,certainly not in the best condition of that old man who was still lying on the ground and ranting incomprehensible words.  
The forehead of that man,more or less middle-aged,was beaded with small and numerous drops of sweat;his eyes were almost injected with blood as were his chapped and dehydrated lips.

Then,all of a sudden,the man began to cough uncontrollably in front of Tessa who,finally realizing where those powerful coughs came from,frowned in an expression of worry and confusion as she watched him lean against a wooden chest and letting himself fall heavily to the ground,caught by the evident pain and fatigue that could be read clearly in his eyes.  
And the young Assassin was already ready to bend over and help the poor man quickly,if it had not been for a small hand that,gripping her long white robe,jerked it gently.  
Tessa whirled around on the other side,and her serious and worried expression soon changed into a sweet and reassured smile.

"I was waiting for you,lads" she said patiently and serene,looking down at the three children and smiling affectionately,while they looked at her from below with purely innocuous and kind eyes.  
"Excuse us for the delay,Miss Knight,but today the work at the factory was more" politely excused the biggest of the children,a little boy of just over thirteen,bringing his gloved hands behind his back.Tessa frowned in a confused expression when she heard the boy's words.  
"More did you say?How is possible,Walter?" asked the female Assassin,kneeling in front of the second child,Wade,and gently stroking his sooty cheek,not distracting her gaze from the other.

"Yes,ya got it right,Miss Knight.The boss says that if we work harder,he will pay us more" Walter answered firmly,the firm conviction of his words made Tessa's heart tremble.And again,the young woman woman found herself displaced by how the pure and genuine innocence of a child could go beyond the caress and the lies of an avid man.  
"Yes or no,he will pay a few more pennies" she murmured with a faint voice,and with the corners of her mouth that rose slowly in a sad smile,trying not to be heard by the three children.  
Continuing to kneel in front of Wade while gently stroking his face,she resumed talking:

"I don't understand why you keep going to work there.There are other jobs less heavy and much easier for you,which you could do" said the woman in a serious and slightly annoyed tone,raising a slight reproachful look on the boy.  
"You could sell newspapers on the street,or help the merchants with the goods.The hours of work at the factory are increasing more and more,doing nothing but tiring you more..." she continued in a quiet and low voice,shifting her gaze to the younger child,Wayne,who,closing and opening his eyes all the time,could barely stand up because of fatigue.

"And this is not good especially for your health" added the Assassin,murmuring,taking Wayne then in her arms and rising him slowly with a slight sigh.He immediately crouched against Tessa's shoulder,who,lovingly smiling at the boy,squeezed him more to herself.  
She was about to add more,but Wade's loud,sparkling and almost happy voice interrupted her abruptly.  
"Miss Knight!Miss Knight!Have ya brought what ya had promised us last time?" he asked in a tone,to say the least,excited,coming closer to her and looking at her with two pleading eyes.  
And the young woman could not help but smile sincerely at the request of the child;so,gently placing Wayne on the ground,slowly drove the package from under her clothes,and then remove the small pieces of cloth from above the casing,revealing then a basket full of pieces of warm and soft bread and some fruit like apples and gooseberries.

The three children began to contemplate the basket full of food with eyes that glistened with tears,as if what they had before was the thing they wanted more...and it was.  
Tessa,pushing the basket towards the three brothers,smiled affectionately.  
"You can take it,it's all yours" she gently urged them,placing the basket in the hands of the older of the three who,raising on the young woman a look full of infinite gratitude,began to share the food with his brothers.  
What amazed the Assassin was the way in which the three consumed the food:it was not in a hasty,fast and voracious way as if they were fighting against food,but rather in a slow,calm,peaceful way and above all tasting the that they had in their mouth,savoring intensely every bit of everything.

"I know you're so hungry,lads,but leave some for Weasel too" interjected the young woman with a slight smile,watching the eldest of three brothers rewind the basket with the pieces of cloth and then raise a look on her full of recognition.  
"Thank ya for everythin',Miss Knight,we would not know how to do without ya," Wade kindly thanked,wiping the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand,chuckled amusedly as Tessa ruffled his hair in a playful way.  
Then,as if she had just remembered something,she shook her head slightly,and then leaned her eyes on the older brother.

"And speaking of Wasel,where is he?Why did not he come with you?" she asked in a confused voice,raising an eyebrow in an interrogative expression,as she watched the boy take off the hat he had on his head and then quickly repose it from the dirt.  
"We don't know,the only thing he told me was that he had to do somethin' not far from here...he had to meet someone," Walter informed her with a harsh tone,gesturing lightly with his hands.  
Tessa nodded slightly with her head and could not help but stop the urge she had inside herself in looking at the man she had not helped:so,looking behind her shoulder out of the corner of her eye,she managed to see the man still lying to terta...most likely asleep or fainted.

Making a little grimace of disapproval with her mouth,she returned to look at the three brothers.  
"And tell me,Walter,is your brother still working in that foundry?" asked the Assassin,her tone that was always calm and soft,not wanting to appear to the three children severe and composed.  
"Yes,Miss,he works mornin' and evenin' in the foundry and arrives home very late in the evenin' "he informed her with a tone that was suddenly sad and bitter,looking around with an almost frightened air,as if he were afraid that someone could hear him.  
And before Tessa could open her mouth to say something,the boy promptly preceded her:

"Miss Knight,I heard that ya know the boss of the new gang that was formed a few weeks ago.If I remember correctly they call themselves _'The Rooks'_!" he exclaimed with a sudden light in his eyes and the young woman's heart,as soon as she heard the boy's words,could not help but lose a few beats.  
Smiling with a smiley ghost on her rosy lips,she nodded slightly with her head.

"Well,see...could I ask ya a little favor?" Walter asked with a tone and with a suppliant look,which made her heart melt;so,after the Assassin had given him a nod,he expressed himself:  
"Could ya talk about Weasel with the boss of this gang,please?Could ya put a word on him?So he could join the Rooks!" the boy exclaimed with excitement and emphasis,an optimistic and hopeful smile on his lips;but that was immediately swept away when he saw the thoughtful,dark expression of the young woman on her face.  
She would have liked to help Weasel find a less tiring and more profitable job,and the proposal that the little Walter gave her was a great and brilliant idea...if it had not been for the big gap between her and the young Frye.

Not that she was cowardly,not that she was afraid or otherwise,but she already knew if,if she had asked Jacob that little favor,he would surely have laughed bitterly in her face.Who knows,if the male twin had a shred of common sense or even a little intelligence,would not refuse her proposal.At least,it would not have cost anything.At least,the more they were better.At least,he would help a guy in time of need.  
At least...

"Miss Knight,is there somethin' wrong?Maybe I asked too much?" Walter's thin,low voice brought Tessa back with her feet on the ground.  
Shaking her head slightly as if to awaken,the young woman placed her thoughtful and worried look on that doubtful one of the boy.  
Kneeling one last time on the ground in front of the child,the Assassin looked at him with a gentle and kind look.

"No Walter,it's all right...it's just that I can not do it,I'm sorry," Tessa muttered sincerely sorry,and swore to hear her heart shatter into a thousand pieces when she saw the boy lower a look suddenly sad on the ground.

So,feeling tremendously guilty for making her little friend sad,she gently took his face with one hand,lifting it up until his look of disappointment met her warm and welcoming gaze.  
"I'm not doing it because I do not want to,but because...how can I say," she mumbled,raising her eyes to the sky and swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat.  
"Because I do not have good relations with the boss of this gang,here" concluded Tessa with a gentle voice,an invisible and slight smile on her face as she gently stroked Walter's cheek.

"But I promise you that I'll try to do something for Weasel,one way or another," the Assassin concluded with determination,resting a hand on Walter's shoulder,and then smiling gently at Wade and Wayne.

_One way or another..._

* * *

Tessa,once arrived at the railway station of Withechapel,jumped nimbly on the hideout train before it could leave again and,as soon as she entered one of the many carriages,she found herself in front of the three Assassins who immediately raised their heads on her when they realized of another presence with them.

None of the three opened their mouths to greet her,as they were too busy scrutinizing her carefully and with indifferent glances...at least,this was true for the twins:unlike them,Henry greeted the young woman with a gentle and kind smile on his face,as was always his habit.

"Maybe do I have somethin on my face?" she asked wryly,raising her eyebrows in a questioning expression.And Jacob snorted,smiling,ready to respond to the recovery of his old friend,but was quickly preceded by Green:  
"Here you are.I was wondering where you was," Jayadeep uttered first,raising his arm slightly and then resting a hand on her shoulder,which,in response,slowly raised the corners of her mouth in a tight smile.  
"I had a few things to do,not far from here," Tessa said calmly and,running her gaze across the room,when her green eyes met Jacob's hazel,long shivers ran down her back,making her shiver slightly. 

So,feeling in a terrible and strange awe under those dark and deep eyes,she looked away from him and then leaned on Evie who,to her great amazement,was staring at her with not a little attention;the female twin then,caught unawares,looked down at the piece of paper in her hands.  
"Let us return to locating the piece of Eden" she suddenly uttered,placing the piece of paper on a wooden table.  
"We need to reclaim London from Starrick.Who are my tartgets?" Jacob's voice sounded loud in that carriage,his tone full of a strange excitement that Tessa had already seen too many times;the male approached his sister,lowering a little and spreading his arms and looking at her with a mocking sneer on his lips.

"It's not time for that yet," Evie replied in an almost angry tone,her ice-colored eyes clearly showing the disapproval of her brother's words.  
"I didn't come to London to hunt curios" he blurted quickly,his voice despising,annoyed and high,turning away and pointing to an inaccurate point with his hand.

" ' _First understand the dance,only then become a dancer'_ " she snapped at her brother,quoting those words all too familiar to Tessa's ears:those that were the old,profound and truthful words of their father Ethan.She passed her thoughtful gaze and full of distant and blurry memories on the figure of Henry at her side who,while the bickering between the twins did nothing but grow,hanging several sheets on a wall.

"Oh?So you're taking over where father left off" exclaimed the malee twin in a suddenly irorous and falsely amazed voice,raising a hand slightly in a theatrical gesture.  
"Someone has to" Evie replied with determination,and Tessa felt nothing but bitterness and resentment in seeing the way the two siblings argued,seeing the sheer hatred and fervor with which the male looked at his sister.

And that exchange of glares could go further and lead to something deeper,if not for the usual punctuality of Henry who,interrupting the discussion of the two,uttered in a calm tone:  
"Evie,finding the Precursorsor artifact will gave us an insight into what the Templars inted.Jacob,I have information about Starrick's associate that should be of use to you" he spoke in a serene voice,finally letting the silence descend into that carriage,turning once and forwards to the two twins who,again,looked at each other intensely and with a spark of rivalry that shone in the eyes of both of them.

"Here" concluded Jayadeep,pointing with an outstretched arm the wall where there were attached sheets;and Tessa could not remain surprised and could not hide an amused grin when she saw the work,precise and externally ordered,that in a few minutes he was able to organize.On that wall there were all the necessary information about the Templars and their respective activities in London.  
So,after Jacob decided he would start investigating the production of Starrick's Soothing Syrup,Henry seeing and catching on the fly an opportunity for his friend to win back the confidence of the two Frye,continued:

"Tessa could help you,Jacob.Ske knows some things about this...right?" Jayadeep added in a calm voice,bringing back the attention of the young Frye who, meanwhile,was intent on scrutinizing the information interested in him on the wall.  
And him,not even bothering to take his eyes off the sheet that he was observing,replied:  
"I appreciate the thought,Greenie,but I prefer to kill myself with my own weapons rather than trust her again," Jacob replied in an indifferent,monotonous voice,grimacing nonchalantly with his mouth,thus receiving a glare charged with disapproval part of the sister.

And inside the young woman,feeling humiliated,feeling like a joke in a way so arrogant by him,feeling offended by his words,something was born that made her eyes shine with a new and strange light.  
So,pulling away from the door frame with a rusch,she approached the young Frye,who continued not to give her importance,even though he felt like he was stabbed behind his back by millions of knives,when she began to peer into him.

"Yes,I know a couple of things that could be very useful to you," Tessa declared firmly,setting aside with courage once and for all the fear,sadness and regret she had always had since her two old friends had arrived in London.  
Jacob,unable to fight the ardent and irresistible desire to respond,turned the other side and then find her body a few steps away from his.  
"Enlighten me with your intelligence,please,Miss Knight," he murmured in a mocking tone and with a fake soft smile on his face,a low,deep, husky voice that made the young woman shiver once more.

Then,as if he had immediately changed his mind,he raised a hand and placed it in front of her face,which frowned in a confused gesture,looking at him questioningly.  
"In fact,I don't need your information.I can do it very well alone,so if I were you,I would not waste time talking because I will not listen to one,single syllable that will come out of your mouth," the Assassin whispered in a deep,sharp and cold voice;his tone was so faintly sweet and gentle as serious and alert;the mellifluous smile that made him raise the corners of his mouth in a slight grimace.

"But let me inform you of something..." she began in a low,calm tone,as if his odious poars had not touched her a little.  
Approaching a few steps close to his face,she took some moments to scrutinize him carefully in his hazel eyes:deep,dark,intense and cold,she could distinguish the obvious hatred,anger,resentment,fury daringly burning inside them;but also saw something else beyond those bad and negative emotions;she saw what was a distant but at the same time near and blurred sadness,disappointment,regret...and even nostalgia,that he himself did not want to bring back to light;that he wanted to keep far from the penetrating eyes of her;that he himself tried in every way not to feel.

The quiet,low voice of the young woman brought him back on the ground,returning his mind to order:  
"I know above all that if I did not tell you what I know,you would wander all over London in search of this Soothing Syrup,losing only precious time" that answer,said in a slightly sardonic and pedantic tone,ended with a smile to say the least mocking on her rosy and fleshy lips,made Jacob not just surprised.  
And,if the young Frye was quite amazed,Herny was extremely aghast...and even slightly proud,seeing his friend no longer stopped by fear.

They fell in a silence,to say the least religious,if it were not for the wheels of the train that clung slowly on the rails;a silence where everyone could even resent what had been the very truthful words of the young woman.  
And the female twin,seeing his brother run out of paole perhaps for the first time in his life,intervened quickly,breaking that chilling silence.  
"Jacob,apparently Tessa is right.Listen to her," said Evie in a calm and reasonable tone,passing her gaze from her brother to her old friend who,in response,gave her a silent thank you with her green eyes full of gratitude.

So,not wanting to make a silent scene in front of everyone,the young Frye cleared his throat a few times before squaring his shoulders and looking at Tessa from above.  
"Tell me everything you know,then," he murmured with an annoyed tone,spreading his arms slightly,not wanting to reveal the complacency that stained his voice,then shooting a look full of rage and reproach on his sister.

With a light and invisible smile on her face,she began to speak under the three looks of the Assassins:  
"On the borders of Lambeth,in the harbor area near the banks of the Thames,there was a merchant selling this Syrup.I saw him a few days ago,while he was selling some bottles of this liquid to a man...and I think that he still remained nearby" the young woman said in a composed voice,looking at her old friend with eyebrows raised in a pedantic expression,while he looked at her with a skeptical face.

"Pf,is everything here what you know?" he asked with a bitter irony,wriggling his lips in an almost disgusted grimace,raising his eyebrows in a falsely amazed gesture.  
"Certainly it's much more than you could have learned in a week," Tessa quickly replied in a slightly hostile voice,looking at the male Assassin with a wary grin on her lips,also feeling a slight sense of pride when,once again,Evie intervened to make his brother reason:  
"What Tessa knows is quite enough,Jacob.Be satisfied" the female twin said,still reproachfully,slightly disapproving of the way her brother answered their old friend.

And him,casting a sigh mixed with a light and false laugh,smiled with a smile evidently pulled to Tessa who,not breaking down in front of his face,remained impassive.  
"I've never been one who is content" Jacob said in a falsely sorry tone,a soft smile on his lips when he met the confused look of the young woman in front of him.

So,sighing heavily as if on the shoulders had an imaginary weight,he rubbed his face in a tired gesture,and then looked at the Assassin with a neutral and flat expression.  
"And that means we'll have to work together,then" he muttered in an indifferent tone,glancing at his sister and then placing his hazel eyes on her green ones.  
Swallowing the lump that had formed in her mouth,she uttered:  
" _Apparently_ " she murmured instead in a low tone,bringing her arms to her chest and crossing them,shifting the weight from one foot to the other and making her gaze wander towards Henry who,she noticed,had an imperceptible and almost invisible satisfied,proud and even slightly amused smile on the lips.

"And I'd like to let you know a little detail," added Jacob alertly,pointing a finger against her in threatening.  
"If _anything_ should happen to you,if the idea of killing you during the mission comes to your mind,know that it will not matter to me and that I will not hesitate to continue on my way" whispered the youngest of the Frye with a sharp and cold tone,squinting at two slits and looking intensely at her who,feeling all the determination that she had built in those few moments crumbling at her feet,nodded in approval.

And Evie,as she watched the silent figure of her old friend come out of the carriage and then jump out of the train,felt something that was similar to sadness:she was so sorry for her but,above all,for the way Jacob involved in it.  
Not that she felt pity for the young woman,as steadily supported her twin,but her face darkened slightly and more every time she saw her brother's bad answers to her.

All of him showed the hatred he felt for Tessa:his eyes,once sweet,warm and welcoming for the girl,had been darkened by a thick dark,deep and vitreous veil;his facial expressions,once pleasant and admirable for the young woman,were transformed into cold,indifferent and hateful one;his voice,above all,once affectionate,gentle and soft,was now a cold,sharp,flat and indifferent hiss.  
He looked at Tessa as if she had a complete stranger in front;as if only in hearing her voice cause him a great annoyance inside;as if only in looking at her in the eyes for a few moments triggered in him all the memories and emotions that he had kept hidden for years.

The female twin knew that one day she would be able to forgive her friend...but what about her brother?It seemed that the regret,the hatred and the anger that he showed when he spoke with her were founded,were born of a pure and profound sense of disappointment that was inside him,that did not allow him to trust her;that did not allow him to look at her with the same eyes of years before;that did not allow him to forgive her.

And while Jacob was intent on looking at the door from where their childhood friend had just ended,Evie saw and was able to make out a faint glimmer glittering in his eyes quickly: dejection.  
And she knew,she realized that he had told the biggest lie that had left him speechless.

_He still cared about Tessa._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another chapter,people!  
> I have to tell the truth:in this chapter,at the beginning,I had planned to insert also the mission of Jacob investigating on the Soothing Syrup...but given the length of the last chapter,I did not want this to be as long,as it would have seemed heavy and boring.I know that there is not a bit of action,but I wanted to write the first part that there is at the beginning.And,about this,keep well in mind this part with the three kids,because...well,I can not tell you why,but I can only say one (or rather two) things: they will reappear other times and,thanks to these three children and their brother,something veery important and brutal at the sime thing,will happen!
> 
> That said,I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Ciaa ;3


	6. •VI |Of rejection and acceptance|

" _'Jacob,apparently Tessa is right.Listen to her_ ' " damn the truth that was in Evie's words.  
" _'What Tessa knows is enough, Jacob.Be satisfied'_ " and above all,damn the desire that he had in starting,finally,his first and true mission in London.

Miming the voice of the sister in a mocking voice,making some bitter ans nonchalant grimace with the mouth,Jacob increased the gait of his steps as soon as he glimpsed the area of the Thames port,lightly curled his nose in a disgusted expression,when the stench of the polluted and dirty waters of the river reached his nostrils.

He looked around confusedly and inquisitively,trying to figure out where he could find that merchant who,as Tessa had informed him,distributed the Soothing Syrup on the borders of Lambeth near the banks of the Thames:unlike him,the people who walked beside him,seemed not to be touched by that strong smell that emanated the waters of the river a few meters away from them;women walking arm in arm with their men talking discreetly,while the noise of the stirrups of horses sounded sharp and strong on the road in stone;children who,running from one side to the other as if they were running away from someone or something,filled the air with their joyful and carefree shouts and laugh.

Sighing heavily and wearily running a hand over his face,he cursed for the umpteenth time that day the words of Green and his sister:for how many times he had done it,in a few minutes? Certainly not enough to be able to remove that imaginary weight that weighed heavily on his shoulders when,facing reality,he had to accept the fact that he should work with his old friend if he wanted to have any hope of success in his mission.  
Not that he can't stand the idea of working in company,but the idea of to having Tessa by his side on a mission does not convince him.On the contrary: did not convince him at all.

Evie's words echoed,again for once in that day,in his mind,repeating to say the least infinitely and almost causing him an annoying headache:after all,nothing new to him that,since he was a child,was used to being scolded by his father and sister.  
' _Tessa is right.Listen to her'._  
To the young Frye,when his sister spoke those words,it seemed that she was supporting their childhood friend...who was siding with her.

But what the male twin could not understand was how his sister could behave in a completely neutral way towards their old friend,even 'siding' on hee side:it was as if she had not abandoned them,as if she he had not left them alone for all those long and almost interminable years.

And Jacob began to ask himself seriously if it was his behavior in regard to Tessa to be wrong,or if it was that of Evie.It was too severe,cold,stubborn,arrogant and still mitigated by hatred and sadness,or was the sister too commiserable, compassionate,calm,sweet and nostalgic?  
Perhaps he still had too much rancor, anger,sadness,rejection and disappointment inside him for that young woman?The young Frye was more than sure about this,and most likely his sister was not of hia opinion,and she could scold him billions of times in vain for his cold and hateful behavior,but she could never manage to understand what he felt inside himself,inside _his heart_ ,inside _his soul._

Evie did not know anything,she did not know the tremendous sadness,the endless anger and the deep disappointment he felt whenever he saw Tessa;every time her green-eyes penetrators dug deep inside him;every time he felt her voice echoed in his mind whenever distant,remote but clear memories reappeared before him.  
She did not know about the promise,of _that_ promise that her old and dear friend had done years before.

So,while tremendously confused thoughts whirled through his mind,Jacob found himself beside an equally thoughtful Tessa:sitting on a wooden chest,she looked at the nothing while the young Frye subjected her to his intense vision.Feeling suddenly observed,she shook her head slightly to awaken from that thoughtful state before raising her head and meeting her old friend's hazel eyes.  
Trying with all of himself not to be petrified and amazed when the young woman gave him a light and almost invisible smile,the Assassin nodded to her in greeting.

And when her green eyes met him,the two Assassins began to stare at each other,deeply digging one into the other's gaze,almost completely isolating themselves from all people,from all things,from all sounds,from all noises that were around them.Among them there was a silence,to say the least,religious if it had not been for a merchant who,in front of them,began to shout out loud why young Frye was there.

"Always late,as I see," Tessa suddenly uttered,a slight,mocking smile on her lips,thus interrupting the almost embarrassing harmony.  
"Always with that long tongue,as far as I can see," Jacob replied bitterly,and the corners of his mouth slowly lifted into a satisfied grin,when he noticed that he managed to obliterate that pedantic expression from the girl's face.And she was about to open her mouth to say something,when a voice behind the two interrupted her abruptly,exclaiming in a loud tone:

"Get Starrick's Soothing Syrup right here!" when the male Assassin turned,he found himself before a merchant who,walking slightly back and forth,gestured animatedly with his hands pointing to the goods he had placed on a small wooden table,drawing the attention of some people who,continuing to walk,gave fugitive glances to the coffers and its assets.  
And Jacob,turning over again on Tessa's side,realized that on her face a brand-new expression was still reigning,and as she stretched out her arm and gestured to the merchant in front of them,she began:

"As you can see,my information was true," she said in a slightly derisive tone,an obviously proud smile on her lips when she saw the young Frye turn his back with a gesture almost angry and nervous,approaching a career towards that man.  
But before he could just get close to him,a woman,who had been listening to the merchant's exclamations for quite some time,suddenly intervened.

"It's all he drinks,your syrup is liquefying him.It's turning him simple-headed!" the woman said in a remarkably angry tone,a serious dark scowl on her face,pointing with a hand to a man who was sitting on a chest not far from them,whose appearance was certainly not the best:with eyes of a yellowish color and with red veins to surround the whole,the face of that poor man was nothing short of skeletal and white,marked by fatigue and with a look completely lost in nothingness.

"Now,look now,you're scaring away my customers.Why do not you bugger off or I'll give you something to remember me by!" the merchant countered in a voice obviously annoyed,advancing a few steps toward that lady,gesturing with his hands and pointing to an inaccurate spot around him.  
She then invented,pointing a finger at the man,who was about to reply when Jacob,deciding that it was time to intervene and put an end to that scene,finally approached them with firm steps.

"What's all this then?" asked the Assassin,putting himself in the middle of the lady and the merchant,placing a hand before the woman's face as if to make her stop talking.Turning to the merchant,he subjected him to hie serious and authoritative look,which did not intimidate not at all the man who,in response,exclaimed firmly:  
"SOD OFF!" he cried intimately,suddenly hurling a knife from under his ruined gown,pointing it at the young Frye,who, with a bitterly amused grimace of his lips,sent the weapon away from the merchant's hand with a lame handful.

The man,seeing with what force the Assassin managed to disarm him,could only look at him tremendously frightened:so,backing away some steps back,he started to run away leaving all his goods unconscious.  
Jacob,turning slowly toward the woman,bent slightly in a false bow.

"If you'll excuse me,madam," he murmured softly and gently,smiling brightly at the lady,and then turned to Tessa who,for all that time,had enjoyed that little show and was also particularly amused.  
"And you don't try to follow me," added the male twin in a serious voice,pointing a finger against her,who,frowning her eyebrows,raised her hands lightly in surrender,still sitting motionless on the wooden box while watching the Assassin run away and chase the merchant.

And the young Frye,while he was busy running and jumping into the sewers in pursuit of the merchant who in the meantime yelled at him threats and supplications,wondered if the threat,the ban he gave to Tessa before running away was not too much and of consequence,he wondered again if his behavior towards her was not too hateful and cold:deep inside,he knew very well that Tessa was a skilled and gifted Assassin,and certainly a help and a pair of blades hidden would not have hurt him.

But it was all a question of trust:trust,that the Assassin no longer felt for his old friend,trust that had been trampled and thrown away brutally,trust that it would not be easy to win back after what happened.  
So,while in his mind were flowing quickly and confused thoughts,finally came out of the darkness of those sewers whose smell did nothing but make him a slight dizziness,finding himself again in the clean air and sunlight.

Continuing to run until the legs began to hurt a little,he found himself a few steps from the merchant and was about to launch himself on him to stop once and for all that race when,in front of him,the man suddenly stumbled and fell brutally with his face on the ground.  
Jacob stopped abruptly,a confused expression on his face when he saw a foot being pressed lightly on the back of that merchant,thus preventing him from escaping again.

But his expression,confused and astonished,was quickly replaced by a serious and almost offended when,raising his head from the mugging body of that man,he did not see Tessa's mocking and smatter look,continuing to press her foot against the mans back;hee arms folded in hee chest,as she looked down at the Assassin in front of her.

"Need some help?" The young woman said softly,raising an eyebrow in a questioning expression when the young Frye grimaced annoyed with his mouth.  
"No,I refuse the help," he blurted out harshly,bending slightly and raising with a quick,manhandling hand,he raised her foot from above the merchant's back,which he took by the shoulders and slammed against a wall.  
"Tell me where the syrup originates" Jacob murmured in a threatening tone,loosening the hold on his back when he began to bleach information:

"All I know is they make a run each day-between the gasometers and the Asylum"said the merchant with a slightly trembling voice,as he holds his hands in front of his face,as if he could hide the expression of pure fright that could be read in the face.  
Looking at him with a satisfied smile on his lips,the Assassin brutally pushed the merchant to the side who,seizing the opportunity,ran away again.

Jacob lowered his head slightly,accompanying the gesture from a deep and I sigh that made the corners of Tessa's mouth rise in a lopsided smirk.  
"Ah,the things you have to do to get a shred of glory" she sighed falsely regretted,shifting the weight from one foot to the other,continuing to keep her gaze high even when the cold and dark eyes of him leaned on her.

"Glory that you certainly will not have," the male Assassin replied promptly in a serious voice,looking at her old friend from head to toe.  
And her,raising and lowering her shoulders in a quick gesture,spread her arms.  
"Glory that I don't want,because I am not here for this," the girl said in a calm and proud tone,smiling slightly at his confused expression.

"And let me guess..." Jacob began in a falsely curious voice,advancing a few steps in the direction of Tessa.  
"Are you here to help me?" he asked,whispering with a ghost of a bitter smile on his lips,which turned into amusement as he realized the slight fear that stood at that moment before her eyes.  
"Yes," the female Assassin murmured in a slightly shaky tone,swallowing noisily the lump that had formed in her throat,unconsciously backing away a few paces when she realized the closeness of their faces.

"And then I'll oblige you," continued the young Frye with a mocking and sharp tone,feeling a sensation similar to fun when he noticed her face darkening as he went.

"But I did not ask for your permission," the young woman replied in a suddenly firm voice,the authority that blew her eyes and made Jacob extremely confused.

Between the two there was a silence to say the least religious,if had it not been for the numerous noises that were around them.  
Clearing his throat a couple of times and blinking as if waking from a sudden sleep,the male Assassin pulled away with a snap from Tessa who,only then,realized that ahe had held her breath for as long as he had been close.

"If I could give an advice..." the young woman's sentence was immediately interrupted by the voice of Jacob,who,falsely ironic and bitter at the same time,resounded in that small park where they were still:  
"No,you can't" and certainly the female Assassin could not hide the sadness she felt when she recognized the impertinence and arrogance in the words,and in his voice;but,trying to keep calm,resumed talking with cal and the kindest tone possible:

"I would start from a market not far from here.While I was going to the port,I saw a couple of Blighters wandering through the merchants' stalls.Probably the man you're looking for is there," the girl explained,gesturing quickly the hand an inaccurate place behind her.

And the young Frye,for the umpteenth time in that eternally endless day,sighed heavily,cursing the moment when Green proposed his _'faithful companion'_ as his helper in the missions;even cursing,and above all,the words of his sister.

* * *

While the two Assassins were hiding behind an outlet of a chimney on a roof of a house next to where the market took place,Jacob did nothing but think of Tessa's completely changed behavior while looking closely at the group of Blighters below him:just a few weeks before,when he and his twin had just arrived in London,when he had shouted and spoken furiously and coldly in the face,it seemed to him that the young woman could not fight back,that she could not to reply with a single word or phrase;but,as suddenly,her behavior and her way of acting was totally changed in a blink of an eye:now,only with a word,or with the use of only one look,she could displace the male Assassin.

If she was frightened before,taken by remorse and sadness,she was now determined,self-confident and even slightly mocking,motivated by _something_ that young Frye could not understand.  
And he scolded countless times within himself,when he discovered that motivation, _the motivation_ that made her change,the motivation for which her old childhood friend was struggling:regaining his rust and that of Evie.  
And he would burst out laughing bitterly,if it had not been that he was in the middle of a mission.

So,just to hunt a small and imprectable laughter through his nose,he twisted his mouth in a disdainful grimace.If Jacob was sure of one and the only thing,it was that he would not allow Tessa to regain his trust and his confidence so easily.

"Found" he whispered singing,a corner of his lips lifted in a satisfied smile,already anticipating the idea of ending the lives of those unfortunates,when he managed to distinguish the distributor in the crowd;getting up quickly from his seat to the side of the young woman,he looked at one last time around,before taking off his top hat from the head,crush it and store it in one of the inside pockets of his coat.

"Well,now the thing to do is to take the information from the distributor as silently as possible"  
"As chaotic as possible" the two Assassins spoke in unison and their voices intertwined in a mixture of discretion,decision and excitement;they turned at the same time one from the other side,starting to look at each other in a totally confused way.

"What?No,we will not do that...you will not do that.You'll just be messing up," she began disapprovingly,gesturing with a wave of her hand at all the people,the merchants,and the enemies who were only a few feet away from them.  
"It will mean that it will be fun," he cut short with an obviously annoyed and hurried tone,defiantly challenging her proud gaze.  
"A mess that will draw the attention of the Blighters on us," the young woman replied in a voice that was starting to get nervous,jumping up and facing his eyes too.

"That's exactly what I want," Jacob snapped in a pedantic,amused tone,always the bitter irony that made his eyebrows furrow in an expression of sheer confusion at her words,constricting her plan.  
"A mess that will alarm the distributor,making him run away," objected Tessa with stubbornness,trying to reason the young twin but in vain,her tone decided,wanting to appeal to all the authority that she possessed at that time.

"Not if I kill him first" proclaimed the male Assassin with a certain dose of pride and disdain,once again carefully examining the Blighters below him.  
"It's not the right way to act..." the young woman's sentence was brutally interrupted by the young Frye,who,in a loud,serious and cold voice,uttered:

"This is _my_ way.Accept it,stay quiet and work with me or leave and don't try to come back" he countered with a dictatorial and authoritative tone,which once and for all managed to make Tessa remain speechless,with a clear compliant expression on his face.  
Giving a last crooked and lopsided look at the young woman,who had lowered her head sadly to look at the people below her,with a quick gesture of his hand he cautiously raised hia hood over his head.

Looking again for a last time around with attentive eyes,Jacob jumped with ease and with a feline click from the roof:his robe swelled quickly with air and it was as if he flew for a very short moment,before landing quickly and precisely above a Blighter;throwing him heavily to the ground with a quick gesture of the wrist,his hidden blade suddenly came out and the warm rays of the sun,as if to welcome that ancient and noble weapon,crossed the clouds and leaned gently on the cold blade,making it gloriously sparkle for some eternally infinite seconds.

The blade immediately came into contact with the neck of the Blighter who,feeling only a stabbing pain before total darkness,penetrated deep into the flesh.  
The second Blighter who stood beside his now dead companion,soon did his same end,finding himself paralyzed and still dead before touching the ground when two pairs of hidden blades slit his throat lethally.

And so,began the most total of the mess:women who screamed at their throats as they ran away stumbling in their long and showy clothes;men who,still and motionless,watched with the pure terror that sparkled intensely in their eyes the pool of blood that framed those two bodies;but above all,for great excitement and fun of Jacob,but for the great boredom and dismay of Tessa,Blighters who began to fight against the male Assassins.

And while the young Frye was busy ending the lives of those poor wretches,the famale Assassin watched him act from above the roof,still standingand safe from everything and everyone:not even her hood could conceal the obvious amazement that suddenly drew her face,when she saw her old friend act.Strongly strengthening the kukri given to him by Henry a few weeks before,he was giving brutal and mortal blows with that weapon,with his blade stained with a dark red,was able to penetrate the deepest flesh,giving a slow and excruciating death.

But what amazed the young woman more,was when she noticed a small but also so visible detail:it seemed that Jacob was born with that weapon in his hand,for the way in which he brandished and wounded in a decisive way and to say the least angry;as if he had a repressed fury inside that,only and exclusively when he fought,could be released.

The facial expressions he made,all the moves,all the techniques,all the grunts, _all of him_ reminded her when,on some distant autumn afternoons,they practiced together in the garden of his old house in Crawley:exclamations of victory,scolded with repressive and severe voice from a tall and imperious figure,teachings on teachings by expert and accustomed hands,attentive and concentrated looks,gleaming eyes of admiration,painful muscles,cuts that became scars with time.The hard work was worth it,after all .  
And yes,Ethan,and even George,had done a really good job,even though Jacob's ardent soul could not be replaced,improved or changed.

So,shaking her head quickly as if waking up from that thoughtful state,she easily climbed from above that roof as soon as she realized that,the same Blighter that Jacob had just identified as the distributor,was fleeing when he noticed that his men were dying under the blows of the Assassin kukri.

Running silently behind him,she cursed under her breath when she noticed other Blighters coming out of the corner of her eye:and it was not one of the wisest moves the female Assassin did,as the man interested to her,whirling around when he heard the whispered exclamation she discovered it,remaining amazed at finding himself in front of a young woman.  
Promptly hitting a sharp knife and looking scruffy from behind his back,the distributor pointed it threateningly against her,starting to wiggle,leading more shots in the air that in the direction of the young girl who,easily,managed to dodge the inexperienced shots of that Blighter.And Tessa,not wanting to waste more time in fights,with a quick and almost invisible gesture of the hand,easily threw a smoke bomb on the ground,thus creating a thick and wide grayish cloud that dispersed between her and the man.

Grasping the moment of confusion and weakness of the Blighter,Tessa quickly moved into the cloud holding her breath,before coming close to him,lifting him quickly from the legs and throw him heavily on the ground,then slowly sticking her hidden blade in his back.  
Feeling that her eyes began to weep and lightly burn with the mist created by herself,she quickly inspected the unarmed body of the distributor for some useful information,and once she could find the information they needed,the female Assassin ran away before the smoke bomb ended its effect on the other Blighters,taking refuge a few meters further from the place where the market previously took place.

Looking carefully and discreetly around with still tense and alert air,she began to explain the slip ahe had found in the shirt of the distributor.  
And she was about to start reading what was written on that crumpled piece of paper when,suddenly and almost making her die of fright,a gloved hand snatched the paper from hee hands,making them grab so much less than the air;he removed them in a manner that was,to say the least,selfish and lacking the information she had obtained,moving away from her a few steps forward.

Raising the sheet to constrict the rays of the sun and read better,he proclaimed aloud,rather than talking to himself that his companion:  
"The man in charge of the syrup distribution uns a fighting club at the foundry" the young man Frye declaimed in a resolute voice,while an inaudible grunt of effort came out of his mouth as he leant over the floor to clean the blade of his blood-soaked kukri,stained it on the body of a Blighter that was at his feet.

The female Assassin then,not deigning hee old friend of a word,only an almost disdainful and confused look,gave him her back and started to head away with determined and quick steps.  
"Ohi!" the exclamation shouted by Jacob with a long whistle,make her to stop in footsteps,and once again had to resist the desire to punch him when she found again for the umpteenth time that smatterer and brash smile that as a child she admired with all of heraelf but that,at that moment,she hated with all her heart...or maybe just a part of her heart.

So,planting a questioning look on him,she nodded her head, as if to show him to continue.  
"Don't tell me you want to go all that way on foot,wasting only precious time," said the young Frye in a cheeky and mellifluous voice towards the end,clearly resuming the words she told him on the train.

She,however,continued to show him a neutral face as he continued to talk to her:  
"The foundry where we find the man we are looking for is in Southwark,and it's far from here.And I would like to take a walk on the roofs,but I think that with a carriage you do much earlier and,above all,it'a much more fun"  
"Reckless" and once again in a few hours,they spoke in unison,looking at each other with confused expressions on their faces.  
"Always contradicting,mh?" Jacob asked in a bitterly sarcastic tone,raising the corners of his mouth in a lopsided and mocking smile,while she frowned furiously.

"Your way is..." Tessa was about to reply with a proud voice,but was promptly and brutally interrupted by the strong,high and authoritative voice of him that resounded and resolved in the air:  
"My way is the right one,and you do as the _undersigned_ says.For better or worse" proclaimed the male Assassin,his tone serious,pedantic and arrogant as always,with his look that,if it could kill,the young woman would have already found herself dead on the ground.

No one could contradict the words of the boss of the Rooks.  
Nor is she,who was now nothing or _no one_ for him.

A burden to be carried on the shoulders,a ball at the foot that,unwilling or painful,had to carry around.

_"Above all worse"_

* * *

"Above all in worse,did you say?!"

"Oh,shut your mouth!I have everything under control!"  
"I don't know what perception of _'everything under control'_ you have,because that man is running away!" it was more than ten minutes that the two Assassins fought like madmen,surrounded by people who,unaware of what was happening,continued to watch undisturbed the two men fighting in a wretched ring of a fight club.

Jacob and Tessa,after taking,or rather stealing,a carriage,arriving in Southwark and silently entering the foundry,began to look for the distribution boss.  
Dividing their tasks,the two separated: the young woman had the task of eliminating the Blighters who inspected and kept watch inside the foundry,in such a way as to give a clean and safe road for him;the male twin,instead,had to capture the man interested in them,take him out of the factory and let him speak to give him more information.Nothing difficult or complicated for two expert and agile Assassins like them.

But something,of course,went wrong:while she was busy piercing another man's neck with her hidden blade,suddenly she felt a strong and powerful pistol shot,quickly followed by screams,grunts and exclamations of all kinds.So,hoping that the mission had not been compromised by the ardent desire foresa that Jacob had inside,she ran in the direction of those noises...only to find a large group of Blighter who,standing in a circle around the young Frye,fought brutally with him.

So,unable to stand still and watch her old friend fight as if he had an anger in him,she joined him,starting to kill Blighters on Blighters,soiling her clothes and her blade with their blood.Naturally,she could not help giving him fiery glares and nervousness,a clear disapproval and a tacit reproach for having sent the mission into smoke.  
"Damn your desire to always create trouble and attract attention!Go,now!" she screamed loudly,her voice slightly scratched as she stuck her hidden blade into the chest of a tall,sturdy Blighter,and then slashed his throat with a swift gesture of her cane swors.

Jacob then,although not at all like the fact that she was shouting to him orders like that,ran away in the direction of that Templar,leaving his old friend to deal with the few remaining Blighters.Appearing from before the man after having chased him for the entire foundry,the young Frye gave him a strong punch in the stomach that made him bend in two,then take him by the arm,twisted it slightly behind the shoulder and then immobilize him.Once done this,he began to walk with quick steps and fast inside the building,then noting that Tessa had eliminated all the enemies,so when he passed next to her and saw the pile of dead bodies scattered on the ground in a pool of blood and heard the heavy breathlessness of the girl,made an invisible nod with his head,indicating the way out.

Once they were out of the foundry and far from prying eyes,Jacob brutally threw on the ground the distribution boss who,feeling tremendously in awe under the cold and deadly gaze of the Assassin,quickly backed away,only to bump into the feet of the young woman who looked at him from above with a neutral and serious look.

"Where is the syrup made?Speak now or forever hold your..." he asked in a hoarse,scratched voice,his tone as threatening as his eyes.  
"The distillery!It's the large building besides the brewery" the man stuttered in a high and hurried voice,the evident fear that shone intensely in his eyes as he let his eyes pass from the woman to the man.The identical fear that died out in a blink of an eye,when Jacob,with a quick and almost invisible move,tore his throat with his hidden blades.

The body of that Templar was shaken by many spasms,before falling on Tessa's feet,who,making a disgusted grimace with hee nose,walked a few steps away watching him gurgle,inhale for one last time and then die.And immediately afterwards,she raised one look of total reproach on the young Frye who,in response,replied with a bitter and spiteful grin,which consequently made the blood boil in her veins.

"Something wrong?" he asked sarcastically,spreading his arms in a theatrical gesture,and then turn around and starting to walk towards the place given by the distribution boss.  
"At the distillery,then," he exclaimed in a loud voice,pushing his top hat off one of his coat pockets,and then putting it back on his head and adjusting it a little.

But he stopped immediately when,turning to his right to see if his old friend was keeping pace,did not see her at his side.He frowned in a purely confused expression when,as soon as he turned back,he did not see her walking to the opposite side.

"Where are you going?" he asked in a loud voice with a slightly annoyed tone,raising an eyebrow.  
"Back to the train," she replied in an equally loud voice so as to be heard,slowly diminishing the pace of her steps,not turning to wade back.  
And Jacob,albeit with all of himself,could not hold back the desire to ask another question:

"Why?" he asked again,and his words quickly left his lips,which were gently carried by the wind to her ears,which finally stopped in the middle of the road.  
"I can't help you in any other way,I've finished my information,I've done my part.Now it's up to you,right?" Tessa replied in a calm,quiet voice,and as soon as she turned,she felt hit and stabbed in the chest when she met the penetrating and intense eyes of the Assassin.

And the male twin,hating and rebuking himself for what he was about to say,retorted with a slightly low tone:  
"Actually,you have not finished your job and the mission is not yet complete.I... _I still need you_ " sighed Jacob consolingly in a monotonous voice,feeling a weight weigh on his shoulders when he said those words:saying that sentence,that confession,sounded very contradictory to his own ears... _especially_ to his own.

After endless moments of eternal silence,Tessa frowned in an expression of total confusion,not moving from her place.

"What?" she murmured in tremendously astonished voice,trying to hide the bewilderment that suddenly shone in her eyes when she heard his words.  
"You heard right,and I will not repeat it a second time just to give you the satisfaction you want" cut off the male Assassin with authoritative voice and to say the least bored,resuming to walk away with stealthy steps,giving back to Tessa who,remaining silent in the absence of words as she was still assimilating his sentences,watching him go away with a thoughtful look and lost in nothingness.

"So?Are you coming?" he asked in a questioning tone,clearing his voice a few times,slowing his pace until he stopped,looking at Tessa over his shoulder with the corner of the eye.And her,shaking her head strongly as if to awaken from that state,threw open the eyes with a gleam that sparkled in them: hope,a new,renewed hope.  
"Yes,yes,I'm coming!" Tessa exclaimed in a happy,almost childish tone,running quickly towards her old friend,who returned to walk.

And Jacob could not hide an imperceptible and almost invisible,satisfied and mocking smile,when he heard the hurried and quick steps of her approaching him.

_Apparently_ _Tessa is right.Listen to her'._

His sister was right.She was damn right.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are,people,in another,new chapter! And I know,I know,always too long...but details!  
> Anywaayy...what do you think of Jacob's grumpy behavior and the emotional strength of Tessa?  
> Leave a comment and tell me what you think of this story!  
> That said,I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Ciaa ;3


	7. •VII |Of hesitation and explosions|

"How could I have thought she would be useful to me?"  
"Did you say something,Mr. Frye?" Jacob looked quickly to the other side as soon as he heard Tessa's voice behind him. And in fact,when he turned,he found himself in front of the young woman who,with a satisfied smile on her lips,looked at him in a pedantic way.The young man looked at her carefully from head to toe,before he could open his mouth:

"I said you're slow,you'll do nothing but slow me down" he lied,writhing his lips in a grimace of disgust,his voice slightly high and as always,authoritative.And certainly those words were as truthful and significant as the others who whispered a few moments before,believing that he was not heard by anyone.  
"Are you referring to the fact that you had to wait for me for a few minutes?" the female Assassin suspected in a falsely confused tone,only to advance a step forward,finding herself a few steps away from him who,in a religious silence,listened to her.

"Precisely," he agreed,nodding slowly with his head,not backing away and not feeling at all intimidated by her deep and penetrating gaze.  
"I remind you that you have the grappling hook,while I have only my hands," Tessa specified in a calm voice,raising her arms high and brazenly showing her wrists to her friend,who gave her a quick selfless glance.

"Worse for you.I offered to give you a ride up here,but you stubbornly refused," the young Frye retorted defensively,pointing with a dismissive gesture of the hand to the roof of the building on which,at that moment,the two Assassins They found and were discussing.It had been a couple of minutes since,by now,the two had arrived in front of the distillery that had been pointed out by the Templar just before meeting the cold and not a little cozy blade of the male twin.

"There will be a reason why I did not accept your proposal," Tessa replied with a slightly angry voice,looking at her old friend with eyes that were not afraid to challenge his own,with a light that fiercely burned in them like the sunlight .  
"I would be infinitely grateful,if you enlighten me with your intelligence," the male Assassin uttered in a low,mellifluous voice,feigning a gentle smile on his lips,as he spread his arms in a theatrical gesture,but which was soon replaced by a unreadable grimace as soon as he heard what she told him:

"Why should I trust you,if you don't have it in me?" her words,so true as well as full of meaning,pronounced with a strong and almost proud voice,struck him dramatically,making him even shocked for a few moments.But certainly,he did everything not to point out to her that in the meantime,looked at him intensely as she digs deep into his hazel eyes. A tremendously chilling silence and to say the least religious took possession of Jacob who,perhaps for the _first time_ in all his life,ran out of words.And only a fool could deny her words,those that were words tremendously true and that had deeply touched _his heart_...almost making him move,dissolve something inside.

And,perhaps too full of himself,perhaps for the fact that he didn't want to make himself unprepared to those phrases,or perhaps because he had a great pride and ego to keep whole,he returned with his feet on the ground:clearing his voice a couple of times in a slightly nervous way,he tried not to seem to have been caught unawares. _Who would have thought it?_  
So,turning a last,intense and also a slightly sad look at his old friend,he turned again on the other side,not before uttering in a careless tone a phrase that resounded several times in the young woman's head:

"It will mean that I'll have to get one for you," murmured the Assassin,raising and lowering his shoulders quickly in a bored gesture,then kneeling on the edge of the building and starting to examine the area in front of him with attentive and cunning eyes:a group of numerous Blighters guarded the large iron doors of the building,thus preventing an easy and simple entrance into the distillery;while other men circulated both inside and outside the large building area,sometimes giving themselves a change,sometimes looking around and sometimes making sure they have an available weapon.

"We have to find another way to enter,the main door is guarded,we will immediately be sighted" Tessa noted,suddenly breaking the silence that had formed between them,which was interrupted only by the Blighters voices that spoke discreetly among themselves.Jacob shook his head lazily,looking at her with what was a clear and pure disapproval.  
"We'll not be seen if we before take them out of the way" he countered with impudence and authority,ready to step down from the roof if it had not been for her thar,reaching out quickly in his direction,grabbed his hand and pulled him down again.  
And the young Frye froze completely when,suddenly,he felt himself being taken by her hand;it was not for the quick and almost rash gesture that she did,it was not for the fact that she had pulled him to say the least vehemently to herself with such force,it was not for this that Jacob's muscles tightened,his breathing increased slightly and his heart stopped beating in the chest for eternally infinite seconds.But it was for a much more intense,profound and personal reason:it was because of his skin that came in ghastly contact with hers,it was for those moments in which they looked deeply and intensly in the eyes.

It was for that _beautiful_ , _unique_ and _strange_ feeling that ran quickly in the veins,when his hand and his fingers touched hers;the same old and unique feeling,emotion that for many years he didn't feel;the same,unique and identical feeling of protection,security and affection that he felt when he was only a child,and that only and exclusively her was able to give him.  
And it was incredible how,after so many years,he resented the same way even if things had changed drastically:despite his hand being gloved,he managed to distinguish,to recognize that delicate,light and velvety touch.

Jacob,frowning slowly in a totally confused but also _nostalgic expression_ ,lowered his dark gaze on their hands that,still,were united in a hold to say the least strong.He raised his confused look on the equally thoughtful and intense of her,and then lower it again on their joined hands.  
And what he did later,shattered her heart,that new hope of Tessa in a thousand pieces:pulling her hand away from his own,he broke suddenly and violently that contact,that union that was formed for those endless moments between them.

A gesture that the young woman,in other situations,would not have given any weight or importance,but that at that moment it was as if her life was depended on that brute gesture:that shattered and wiped away that authority,that trust in herself and that renewed hope that had begun to bloom inside her when,stretching an arm,took his hand with hers.A fast and almost invisible glow flickered in her green eyes,as soon as she realized that her old friend was looking at her with a look of confusion,slightly angry,and even nolstagic.The same glimmering that was quickly replaced by a dark,glassy veil,which completely covered her green and sad look when young Frye jerked her hand away from his.

Jacob,who in the meantime had turned back to the other side,looked out of the corner of his eye at the silent figure behind him;and was like a fervent stab at the heart,when he realized the sad,disappointed anr alsely composed expression that painted her face in a somber way:that expression which he himself had given light,making that gesture.  
And something inside of him,inside _his heart_ and inside _his soul_ ,told him,whispered and advised him,almost _obliged him_ to say something:a sentence,a word or a simple excuse.But pride and stubbornness took the best of him,making the guilt that was slowly eating him from within disappear once and for all.

They fell,once again in that almost endless day,in a silence to say the least embarrassing and chilling;the same silence that Tessa suddenly interrupted,getting up and pushing along the edge of the building:  
"Who is that man?" she asked in a low voice,frowning in a confused expression when she noticed an old Sir struggling to spy into the steamy,dirty windows of the distillery.  
"This will complicate things" Jacob sighed wearily,rising and stretching a little as he watched that strange old man hiding at the arrival of other Blighters;and when he turned to his right and he didn't see Tessa at his side,a confused expression suddenly marked his face:he began to look around attentively,inspecting the area of the building in front of himself,then finally finding the reason why his eyes snapped from one side to the other.

Tessa,hidden in a hay wagon near the entrance to the small distillery courtyard,silently killed all the Blighter approaching that wagon;sometimes jumping out with an imperceptible rustle and then running with light footsteps behind the shoulders of two others enemies and slaughtering the throats with her hidden blade,sometimes skillfully throwing knives to Blighters too far away,which then fell dead,not arousing any noise or suspicion.  
Her technique was too calculating and silent as deadly and even boring for Jacob who,meanwhile,had fallen easily from above that roof and that,at that moment,was hiding behind a wall while watching his old friend act.

How could he be surprised,after all?After having lived all his childhood and all his youth next to that young woman,he had to expect it:he had to expect the kind of techniques that her,almost every afternoon of distant and misty years,was in company of Evie as she followed Ethan's careful explanations eagerly;he had to expect that and anything else from her that did nothing but do her father's teachings carefully and correctly,while he was busy combining hildishnessn in the middle of Crawley's streets.  
But the young Frye would have enjoyed to upsetting thr perfect and smooth plan of her,sending everything into smoke but at least having a little fun.

And so it was when,finally made the decision,came out into the open and without thinking twice he walked quietly to a small group of Blighters,while he had a faint smile on his lips when he heard other voices threatening him and warned him to leave.But not caring about anything or anyone,he began to walk nonchalantly to those three men who,as soon as they saw him,didn't waste time and began to run in his direction;but him,quick as the wind,drove his gun and aimed it at the chest of the first Blighters that were nearby by quickly pulling the trigger and firing.

Three strong and sharp blows echoed in almost infinite echoes that morning,scaring some crows that were nearby and making them fly away,while in that small clearing fell the most complete silence.But that was soon replaced by noises dizzying:iron that clashed with other iron,moans and grunts of pain,bodies that were heavily in contact with the cold stone of the ground,weapons that tore apart bodies and cries of excruciating despair.  
And so,the most total chaos was created for the umpteenth time on that day.Chaos that caused the young woman to go on a rampage because,for a short time and because of those three gunshots,was about to be stabbed behind by a Blighters for being distracted for a few short moments.

She didn't need confirmation or any other statement,to know that the founder of all that mess and that movement was none other than Mr. Jacob Frye who,once again,enjoyed creating havoc and disorder.  
But Tessa,once found herself in front of numerous bodies of Blighters lying on their backs on the ground surrounded by pools of blood while the male twin continued to fight fiercely,decided that she would not help him.Not this time,at least.  
So heading quickly toward the main doors of the distillery,she immediately noticed a massive lock that kept the doors of the building closed.

For many times she tried to open the mechanism of that messive lock,and for many times she cursed when she noticed that all her efforts were in vain while behind her,the young Frye kept fighting and killing without any brakes.  
And just when she was about to get up and try to find another way out,she felt her shoulder being grasped by a hand;her heart started beating quickly and her breath suddenly missed,as soon as the thought occurred to her that the hand could belong to a Blighter.  
But she began to relax with the passing of seconds,when she realized that the hand was Jacob's,which touch was both strong and decisive and both gentle and reassuring.The same and identical touch to which Tessa would have become accustomed over the years,not being able to do more for less,feeling protected and safe.

"Leave hard work to the people who have competence" Jacob uttered in an authoritative voice,moving his old friend sideways,then lowering himself to the level of the lock and starting to maneuver it.  
And while Tessa turned to the other side to keep a watchful eye on the area around them,suddenly she saw the old gentleman of a short time before walking with determined and quick steps towards them.  
"I regret interrupting you,but youshould..." the young woman tried to warn him in a calm but urgent voice,looking confusedly at the man who was getting closer and closer to them.  
"Not now"Jacob grunted in an arrogant voice,pausing in his little work of breaking away when he heard footsteps and another presence behind him.

The male Assassin suddenly turned abruptly,simultaneously snapping his hidden blade with a quick gesture of the wrist;pointing a few inches away from the face of the victim,was amazed in finding himself in front of an elderly man,who moved quietly the weapon in front of him with an almost angry gesture of the hand.  
"You should not go about frightening respectable gentlmen,young man" the proclaimed man proudly,looking from his bushy white eyebrows Jacob with nothing but haughty air.  
"I didn't realize snooping around was considered _gentlemanly_ ," Jacob replied shamelessly and promptly on the defensive,looking at the old man with a sneering mouth grimace as he stared at him from head to toe.  
" _Snooping?_ Sir,I assure you..." the newcomer was about to fight back,but his sentence was suddenly interrupted by a voice that,high and authoritative,resounded behind them.

"Keep vigilant!" Tessa quickly turned her head in the direction of that voice and,as soon as she noticed that other Blighters had arrived,she made an imprecise gesture to the male Assassin who,turning and taking the lock in his hand,cracked it openly with a fist of his gloved hand,then open the door.  
"Quick!Inside" urgently whispered,gesturing to the elderly Sir to follow him and,before the Blighters could discover them,they silently entered the distillery while the young Frye quickly closed the door behind him.

The two Assassins and that strange old man found each other face to face,and both began to peer,while they were embraced in a silence to say the least religious.  
"That was too close to call," said the old man,and then advance a few steps forward and began to walk slowly inside the large building:finally the two had managed to get in,which Tessa didn't seem true for all that that she had to do to get up to that point.  
Both she and Jacob slowly followed that gentleman as they both looked around:he with little interest,as it was certainly not the first time he entered such a building;but she stared at that distillery with some interest:in addition to big and high machinery that occupied most of the space,stacked on the walls there were also many wooden barrels.A strange,acrid and to say the least nauseating smell infested that place,almost giving Tessa a sense of nausea;the thick layer of dirt that covered the glass of the high windows,prevented the rays of the sun from penetrating that place which was,consequently,dark and shadowed.

The low,calm voice of that old man,again attracted her attention.  
"You,young man,gave me quite a fright!I thought you were one of them,but I realize now why you're here.Same reason I am,I imagine..." he noted,stopping a few times to observe around and then start walking again.  
"I imagine..." Jacob repeated in a diffident voice,making a carelessly grimace with his mouth and then receive a reproaching glance from his old friend,who gave little importance:he didn't like at all that someone was intruding in the middle of one of his missions,and even less so that she took permission to look at him like that.

The two Assassins continued to silently follow that strange man,while him commented and mumbled phrases in a low voice when he looked at the machinery around him;but all of a sudden he stopped,lingering for a few moments at a battered desk on which they found various notebooks and papers arranged disorderly on the wooden table.  
And after reading quickly a sheet of yellowed paper,the old man recoiled a few steps back with the corners of his mouth twisted in a grimace to say the least revolting.  
" _Datura stramonium_.Or Devil's snare,as it is commonly called...that goes into the Syrup?And opium,no less.Revolting!Absolutely sickening!" he shouted in a despising and contemptuous tone,moving away a little and then running away and heading towards a valve of a machine not far away.

"A favorable way to proceed,would not you agree?" he interjected with a veil of irony in his voice,starting to open the valve with both determined and slightly weak gestures,letting out a kind of yellow gas when the valve mechanism was opened,which quickly scattered around the distillery.  
"Find a way out of here!Quickly!" Jacob exclaimed in an alarmed tone,gesturing with a quick wave of his hand a way out that he had spotted at the moment.  
"What about other valves?" the old man asked in a worried voice,as he hurried to reach another door that led out.

"Don't worry Sir,me and the young man here will take care of the rest!" Tessa assured him with a determined tone,urging the man to leave the building,which was soon scattered with other yellowish fumes;when she turned the other way,she didn't find her old friend in front of her,but rather she managed to to distinguish a hooded figure walking on scaffolding,to then hear the thud of two bodies falling to the ground.  
And she was about to reach him,in such a way as to help him,but hie voice suddenly sounded powerful and strong in infinite echoes in the building,making her stop:  
"Kill the others,I will think of all the other valves.Make the way safe!"

Nodding quickly with her head,Tessa began to move towards the other valves and upper floors of the building,killing the Blighters who were on guard and able to block the road to the male Assassin.  
And so,within minutes,almost all the enemies were eliminated,and while the young woman was busy tearing the throat to the umpteenth Blighters,she realized that the air that hung in the building had become unbearable;when she looked around,she saw a thick yellow cloud taking possession of the whole distillery,which suddenly began to tremble strongly.Around her,the machines began to explode,breaking a few window panes into pieces,creating the more total chaos inside the building with some remaining Blighters running to the right and left to get to safety.

Suddenly,Tessa found herself before a figure dressed in black that darted quickly by her side,and who took her strongly by the wrist,dragging her away with him.  
"We have to get out of here, _soon_!" Jacob cried in alarm,letting go of his grip on her arm when she began to run with him,but her,despite the series of bewildered noises that surrounded them,managed to distinguish a bit of excitement and also fun in that exclamation.  
And while they were intent on climbing along the wooden poles to reach the only available way out,a small round window, round them hell was going on:with the machines that were on fire, which always emitted plus that yellowish smoke and the distillery that did nothing but be shaken by powerful shocks,it was not easy to be able to run.And for many times Tessa stumbled,risking falling down.  
Once they had arrived in front of that porthole,Jacob,after making sure that Tessa was behind him,broke through the window strongly and then jump out of it and fall into a cart of hay,immediately followed by the young woman.  
Leaping out of the hay,they began to run as fast as they could:he,his face colored with excitement and euphoria and with a satisfied and amused smirk on the lips;she,with her heart pivoting frantically in her chest,with the wind that lashed her face,grateful and relieved to have managed to come out alive from that hell,but with the adrenaline rushing through her veins.

And soon,all the distillery caught fire as the two Assassins ran off with the last remaining energies in their bodies:their legs begging for mercy,their lungs burning,the wind dropping their hoods from their heads,with smiles purely satisfied on the lips.  
And Tessa almost felt her heart explode from a distant,sweet and real feeling:she felt alive after numerous time,with the same person who made her feel like that when she was a young girl: _Jacob._

  
~~~

 

They moved away as soon as possible from the distillery and ran in the direction of the elderly gentleman with a heavy breath that took their breath away.He went against them with quick steps,while the two Assassins stopped and recovered their breath.  
"Well done,dear boy and dear girl!Well done!" he exclaimed,to say the least proud casting a quick glance at the building on fire and at that moment emitting big gray fumes.Then,shaking his head slightly,he took a straight and composed posture.

"Charles Darwin.Delight to make your acquaintance" proclaimed the old man proudly,extending his arm in the direction of the male Assassin,who looked for a few moments and then held it in a strong and determined grip.  
"Jacob Frye.The pleasure's all mine,"Jacob said,still shaking Darwin's hand,pointing quickly at himslef with his finger and showing a dazzling smile.  
"Tessa Knight,pleased to meet you Sir," she introduced herself in a calm voice,raising the corners of her mouth in a gentle smile when Darwin also gripped her hand.

"While you were busy wreaking havoc,I found this" he suddenly started,driving a small green notebook from inside his long black coat and opening it slightly.  
"It indicates that a sample of every batch has been sent to Lambeth Asylum" explain Darwin with a finger pointing to some writing on the sheets,while the young Frye looked at him carefully.  
"Oh,I wonder if it's visiting hours..." Jacob muttered thoughtfully and with slight malice,putting his gaze elsewhere.  
"Don't be so hasty,Mr. Frye," the old man said in a teasing voice,pointing a finger at the male Assassin.

"Many people work at Lambeth,and you wouldn't want to attract unwanted attention" Darwin continued with an authoritative tone,looking at the young Frye,his eyebrows furrowed in a slight expression of disapproval.  
"Hmm,where's the fun in that?" Jacob muttered under his breath,talking more to himself as he looked away again,while a corner of his mouth quickly stood up in a mocking smile.  
"Not every problem can be solved by blowing things sky high.Sometimes a little _discretion_ is in order"the old gentleman replied firmly,putting his hands behind his back,carefully examining the young Frye.

"If you allow me to say it,Sir Darwin,Mr. Frye is not a man very inclined to discretion" Tessa promptly interposed in a polite,pedantic and even slightly amused voice,thus receiving different confused expressions from the elderly man and several fiery and visibly offended looks from Jacob,to which the young woman answered with a satisfied smile.  
Between the three of them,all of a sudden,the complete silence fell,in which the two Assassins kept exchanging glances.  
"It's getting late" suddenly uttered Darwin,giving a few pats on Jacob's forearm,who looked at him in a very strange and confused way before the gentleman walked away with fast and determined steps.

"I will meet you at the Asylum to continue our investigation" exclaimed Darwin again,turning one last time back in the direction of the two of them,before he started to walk and disappear quickly among the people who crowded the busy streets of London.

The two Assassins remained for a few seconds to look at the point where they had lost sight of Darwin,while a silence to say the least chilling and deathly embraced they,only interrupted by the thumping noise of the hooves of horses and the strong sound of the wheels of carriages that,coming in contact with the road,they raised some splashes of water from the puddles formed on the ground.  
The same silence that also became embarrassing for the two who,standing next to each other,didn't open their mouths to say a single word.  
The same silence that was suddenly interrupted by the malw Assassin,almost making her scare:

"A rather strange old man,this Charles Darwin," he uttered with an amused smile on his lips,while his face had an amused expression.  
"A strange man who,however,gave you help in your mission,giving you more information" she corrected him reprovingly,looking at her old friend with a frown on her face in disapproval.Jacob then,seeing her eyes sparkle fiercely proud,advanced a few steps in her direction,standing before her with a high and authoritative posture.  
"Information that I could easily learn by myself,don't you think?" he asked mellifluously,the corners of his mouth that rose slowly in a shy smile,his tone bitterly sarcastic as he leaned a little to get to the height of the young woman:it was a bit like he was talking to a child,marking all the words well and speaking calmly and gently... _falsely sweet._

But the female Assassin didn't care about the teasing of him,keeping herself composed in front of the young man.And just when he was prone to see that he had left her for the umpteenth time without words,she replied:  
"You don't appreciate the value of the help and the things that others offer you" Tessa stated in a calm and monotonous voice while staring at him a vitreous and neutral look,an expression unshakable as a thousand armor that made the young Frye stay a little astonished;and in order not to show his confused and stupefied expression,the Assassin raised a corner of his mouth in a smug grin.

"I like to say that I appreciate them in a way that is my own" Jacob defended himself with impertinent and proud tone,showing her a mocking smile that she would have wanted to erase from his face with a strong fist,but at the same time appreciated and esteemed as it remembered the most beautiful time of her life.  
"A way more than wrong,then," Tessa replied with a firm voice,challenging the fierce and dark hazel eyes of him with those determined her green ones:a challenge that he willingly accepted,getting closer to her.

A bitterly amused laugh quickly left his lips when he heard her phrase.  
"And what makes you think that,may I ask?" Jacob asked in a pedantic murmur,not taking his eyes from hers for a moment,starting to dig deeply and inside it as if he were looking for something that she kept hidden in her depth:her fears,her ears,her weaknesses that he would soon learn to recognize.  
 _"Your actions speak for you,"_ Tessa simply answered,her voice low but also cold but that,despite the tremendous and irresistible desire to shout in his face,she always remained calm and paceful.

And again for once in that day,his heart was shaken and strongly touched by the truthful words of her:because yes,even if he did everything and tried to convince himself,her sentences and what she said was true.Pheraps he was too rash,selfish and brash and behaved too badly towards her...but she didn't deserve it?  
She didn't deserve his friendship,nor his trust.But even though her words could be true,they were also not true:Jacob was perhaps a little inconsiderate,but he noticed and also appreciated what his old friend was doing.He most likely didn't show it,but he appreciated the fact that she continued,she wanted to help him nonetheless his grumpy and disrespectful behavior.

So,giving a last bitter,amused and cheeky grin to the young woman,he began to walk away,not before exclaiming:  
"I made you more clever and perspicacious," he exclaimed,smiling,looking over his shoulder and then making an imperceptible nod with his head to follow him.And as he walked away,feeling the quick and plush steps of her coming up from behind,he began to to think if all his behavior was correct or not in regard to the girl.

But were not the words that Tessa said on that roof,were they all true,all too damn true?Was it not true that he no longer trusted her?Was not the sad but also the dark look she had given him,while she finished to say those phrases?Was it not true that it was him,only and exclusively him,who gave life to those dark and melancholy emotions inside her?  
Of course it was true,it was all true,concrete,real.

Jacob had the _absurd_ and _unique_ ability,a power,to change Tessa's mood,thoughts,words and phrases in a blink of an eye and with only the use of a cold and sharp look;but why if he was able to give birth to sadness,why he was not even able to forgive her or make her feel joy so long ago?

And perhaps,most likely,he had to let go a little... _maybe he had to start trusting her._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are people,in a new and long chapter!So,have you noticed any change of thought on the part of our favorite British Assassin?What do you think?And what about our dear Tessa?  
> And oh,I almost forgot about something...since I started writing this story,I always wondered if I would be able to interpetrate Jacob in the right way,making him really lokk 'Jacob'.And even now I continue to ask...what do you say about that?I'm impersonalizing him well or would there be something to change?
> 
> That said,I hope you enjoyed it (and excuse me if I took some time to publish this new chapter,but with the school and various commitments,I was a bit busy)!
> 
> Ciaa ;3

**Author's Note:**

> ~~~~~
> 
> Hellooo everyonee !!  
> Here I am in a new book, this time, a real FanFiction on Assassin's Creed ... Syndicate, to be precise! And on Jacob, of course! *^^*  
> I know that this first chapter (a subspecies of prologue), has not revealed so much of the story and the life of the protagonist ... but, in the next chapters, you will discover much more !!  
> That said, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Ciaa! ;3
> 
> *Assassin's Creed Syndicate,the plot,and its characters don't belong to me.All rights to Ubisoft!*


End file.
